Empty Quiver, the Sum of a Week, You Have a Good Look About You Sky is over a year old now. It was the opening piece to the series Neighborhood (on pause for the moment but possibly forever ongoing). I got the idea for the piece when I was living in the two-story apartment with Lingerfelt and Hinson over on Ebenezer Ave. My bedroom window gave view to the east. Most mornings, with chin in hands and a cup of tea on the sill, I'd watch the sun come up. I loved that home. The mulberry tree in the back yard. The bathtub garden. The short walk to the studio over the Oakland/Dave Lyle bridge (I always hoped for the train). Yea, all was pretty sweet. There was a week I got sick though. Three or four days I spent in bed. The painting isn't about bodily illness as much as it recalls the snarled and thankless posture of my heart (later to be eclipsed by the truth, goodness and beauty of Jesus) while I was sick. The painting joins a slew of thoughts and earthly longings I failed to moderate with a surge of truths that eventually found me out on my sick bed. This happens almost every time I get sick. Not all the marks and shapes in the painting represent something, not to say they weren't addressed compositionally or without any thought to the principles and elements of design. I'm not trying to fool anyone though - I'm still a beginner at abstraction. It rained most of the time I was sick, those three or four days, but in that same hour I was coming to realize the greater redemptive work of Jesus and everything I had to be thankful for, the sun came out. And well, then I decided to make a painting. See for yourself...tonight.
Above: Empty Quiver, the Sum of a Week, You Have a Good Look About You Sky
Photo by Zan Maddox
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Then there's the piece I did for Casey's violin recital. Prompted by Philip Glass' Sonata for Violin and Piano. The painting renders a breadth of elements observed in three movements, nearly twenty-three minutes of Glass goodness.
Above: Casey performing with Untitled
Photo by Kathryn Funderburk
Above: details of Untitled, more documentation coming soon
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Lastly, this one. Of course I have more to say, but I gotta go! Hold tight.
Above: 366 Days of Dying
Photo by Aaron Rich
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