IT'S GO TIME

I'm headed off to IlluxCon's Evening Showcase: Oct 24 and 25, 8pm-midnight at the Hilton Doubletree in Reading, PA.

Two months ago I threw out my entire art process and started over from the ground up. I bought ten illustration boards and covered them all in paint.

I’m bringing my best five to IlluxCon (at the time of this writing, I leave in less than 48 hours). I’ll write up something more detailed in the next month or two, but for now, please enjoy a sneak peek at my newest work. I’m incredibly proud of this series and I can’t wait to show it off in Reading. If you’re one of my Bay Area readers, I hope you’ll stop by 2908 Chapman St. for East Bay Open Studios Dec 6-7. I’ll hang these pieces there as well.

The Sacred Flame. oil on board, 16x20

The Abyss Under The Surface. oil on board, 16x20

Resting Place. oil on board, 16x20

The Compass. oil on board, 16x20

Cairn Gate (The Path Begins). oil on board, 16x20

I gotta be honest, when I finish big projects like this, the immediate feeling is not triumph or relief. It’s exhaustion. I’ve been pushing hard to get to the finish line and now that I’m there, I’m tired. Behind the scenes, I had some other high pressure projects going on and they are all due at the same time. You’ll hear more about them later, but they include my first gallery show(!) and doing some pretty major work to the track cars in preparation for race practice. 

So the first order of business today, having successfully completed two whole art show’s worth of paintings, track-prepped two cars, and written a talk (mostly), was to make a cup of tea (Twinings Apple Chai with cream and sugar) and sit outside on my front steps in slippers and a hoodie watching the world go by. 

It’s well and truly fall here. You can feel it. The nights get cold enough for some seriously crisp, dewey mornings. The days are bright, sunny, and in the mid to upper 70s. The air feels different. The pair of hummingbirds that lives out front seems especially high-energy. And there are pumpkins. Of course there are pumpkins. And now that my paintings are done, I’m back from the race track, and two cars are both still in one piece, I can take a few minutes and appreciate the outside world. 

It was a lesson I learned in my corporate job: schedule your own victory laps because it’s all too easy to forget to celebrate your successes when your to-do list never ends. So this morning I took a tiny little victory lap. Maybe not even a full lap. A victory 100m. A victory lounge, where I basked in my own small triumph and patted myself on the back. 

And now, having completed the victory lap, it’s time to pack, get on a plane, and see friends and family and great art. 

Hope you can make it!