Yes, it has been two months since the last blog update due to the January 'break' for Winter Residency. This could be an incredibly long and detailed post, but I have decided against doing this today.

Instead I will return between now and the next mid-month post with a few shorter postings about writing, reading, meetings, presentations, crit group, Franz, Petra, Melusine, shopping and dressing up, playing, videoing and Vimeo, YouTube surfing, TOC et al, and a lot of other thoughts and recollections I have swimming around in my head and want to give individual, focused attention to.

This blog is a key tool of my artistic practice-led research, as such it is first and foremost the place where I take apart through a reflective process what is happening in the studio, my writings and scholarly research. It is the most accurate archive of my process and the journey I am currently undertaking. At times it may seem excessively detailed or downright dull to a reader who is not already or does not have the desire to become embedded with me in this project. It is not meant for that reader. However, it is meant for me as a virtual space where I can take apart my thoughts and actions, analyze and re-approach by whatever means necessary those pathways or dark alleys that beckon for further exploration.

I decided the best use for me of this month's post is to present the process of three pieces I am currently working and are near 'completion' in the studio because this project is not just about painting as another, it is also about how I paint. Until now I have only provided a brief glimpse in December's post of work that was currently on the wall or specific exercises I have given myself in relation to the development of the personas. So it is time to take a look at what I do hours each day: paint.

The first post is the continuation of the work Good Witches of the Between, Part Two
While creating this post I became aware of the next (side)step this work will take.

The second post is Und das Lied .

The third post is Patchwork surface.

During the posting of those two groups of work it suddenly dawned on me how the process of over-painting older work and working on surfaces with a painted history is related to what I am aiming to do with the personas. Really, I had not seen this relationship before...hence the value of stepping back and looking at the arc of the development of not just a single body of work.

To end with a snap of a postcard I picked up in late January while visiting the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut.