Afternoon Haiku

with a dimmer switch,
turning down both light and moods
in late afternoon.



the silent building,
just computer keys clicking
and cars pass outside.



never sleeping
always ready to respond
the phone stands watch.

Photo Quotes

With not having the focus, space, nor vision to paint again; I find that my creative energy will find another way to emerge. I have been finding that playing with pictures, taking what I call "quotes" from nice pictures that I like and holding onto them is an alternative. Jacob Gerritsen is a photographer who has remarkable skill and has taken some phenomenal pictures of Emily. It is fun to pick out a little detail within one of these great photographs to remember. It is like taking a good quote out of a book or talk that I want to hold onto and have on my wall. Jacob's eye is quite sensitive and he has a very gentle way with his lens. In his pictures I find that there are many layers, possibilities and depth to each image. It is helpful to look at each one in different ways. I have included one of them here and the "quotes" that I have taken from it.
In the same way, when I go through a museum, I will pull out a piece from the various masterpieces to hold onto. Otherwise it is simply too much and too many works and I remember nothing.

Shadows to Creating

Over the years of painting and writing I have found that having a crutch or a stimulant sometimes adds an edge to the creative process. When writing I would have cigarettes and coffee, or a drink. Or while painting I would also be drinking. Having the edge of an altered state sometimes helped to bring me to the edge of a more creative state, especially when I felt uninspired or unfeeling. The downside was that it also brought on its own numbness and there was a movement towards crossing over to a place that is uninspired and unfeeling it an opposite way.
Finding the creative energy and nurturing it in ways that are not dependent upon mind altering substances can be a challenge. How does one accept the unfeeling place, the uninspired place and discover why one is uninspired. So often the foreign substance makes things seem more intense, and in that intensity is a creative energy. How does one find the creative energy in the ordinary and everyday moments of routine and simplicity.
It is in discovering the beauty in the simple, and seemingly uninspired, or that which might lack intensity; that lasting and transforming creativity is found. Also the sudden intensity for me creates an art that when I look at it years latter is no longer intense, and sometimes dated. The celebration and expression of the simple and ordinary becomes over time more profound and touching in a deeper intensity for me.