The first image is my kindergarten son's abstact composition. The second is my newest painting "Freedom". My son's art desk is in my studio area and we defintely influence each other. I love the way his work fills the picture plane and I can even start to see a horse head in the upper right. Maybe I was influenced by him more than I even thought. The third image I call "Flight". I'm trying to "paint out loud" as Bob Burridge says and not cover up all of the magic that juicy paint makes.

I'm feeling at peace about my painting which is wonderful and unusual. I wrote a new statement to guide me and keep me focused:

I paint to go on a journey of discovery and feel as though my art making is like dreaming with paint. My painting technique is multi-layered and flows from wet paint and its textures into forms and back into surrounding spaces. My intention is for the paintings to convey a thought, emotion or experience and be read like a nonlinear story or dream rather than an exact representation. Therefore the work is open for viewers to also make their own meanings and interpretations.
I enjoy pushing and pulling the layers of paint. I believe this technique of layering and using textures to unify a work derives from my experiences with the computer program Adobe Photoshop. As a graphic designer and computer illustrator I used this program extensively. Painting on textured surfaces gives some physical space for the layers’ existence and the quick drying time of acrylics allows for immediate layering. From 2002 through 2006, I began acrylic paintings without any preconceived idea in mind and was surprised that figures appeared in my work and that I was interested in the passage of time and generations. Now I am bringing my artistic language of emotive color, expressive brush strokes, free flowing paint, textures and layering together to express intangibles like thoughts, feelings and beliefs. I am currently focusing on a subject immersed in its environment or nature and a feeling of freedom from that immersion.

M.T.'s Chop House
34th Street (just South of Archer Road at
former putt-putt site), Gainesville, FL
Bar counter installation and on going
solo exhibition of works for sale
Open for dinner nightly at 5 pm
call 338-7477 for more information

November 17, 7 to 8 pm
Third Eye Spoken
Participating in Art Gallery for Poetry event.
Held at Unity Church, 8801 NW 39th Ave.
across from Shands at Vista.

November 17 - February 10
Central Medical Plaza
Watermedia Exhibition.
New plaza is on Newberry Road.

Rotating pieces available at the Paddiwhack Shop:
http://www.paddiwhack.com/

I'm really happy with my new painting but it was total anguish to get it started in the right direction. I hope that I have learned about working and will be able to fall into a painting groove for a while and get some consistent pieces. I've learned that it has to start wet and loose. I have to push the painting until it pulls me. Tells me what it wants to be but still hold a grand intention in the back of my mind of what it should be. I started the painting to be about my back yard but then it looked like leaves and flowers. It was decorative without any solid forms. I was scared to let it develope into anything and I was playing it safe with my intentions.
But what I really want to paint are intangibles. Things hard to explain or understand, like the human spirit and soul, time, love, the boundries of the universe, the connections to the past through our ancestors, the capacities of the brain and thoughts. I am not interested in expressing my personal experience but the essence of all our experiences. I love drawing the human figure from life and have been thinking about it emersed in nature. I love abstract compostions that express thoughts and emotions. I like them to fill the space with interesting shapes not be like a landscape . My kindergarten son is drawing lots of abstract compositions, just drawing shapes and filling them with color. They are beautiful, I think I might post one tomorrow.