Amid all the other busyness of last winter, some friends approached me about a commission. The gist of their request was “Behold the distressingly empty walls in this house. We love your work. Pitch us something.” and they gave me a budget. In this case, I know the family well, and I have a good idea of what gets them excited about life, so I was eager to take this on. Some artists will paint anything you want. My commissions are a little different. I’ll paint your story. So let's talk about...

The Compass . Or north star, or sign post, or whatever. Something that points the way. “You can do everything completely by yourself, but most likely you will achieve supreme, profound mediocrity. That’s easy. These days everybody is doing that.” --Stevie Van Zandt *** My recent reading has left me delightedly vexed, and I’ve been wandering around in a state of low-grade irritation, trying to decide what to do about it. When I head out on trips, I like to load up on library books in advance....

I was in the middle of writing something else when I got the news that “Resting Place” has been selected for inclusion into Infected By Art Vol 14 * . This is the first time my work has made it in and I’m over the moon about it. So let’s take a look at how this painting got made. I’m fascinated by people’s collections of things that “might come in handy later.” There’s a certain type of person who saves every spare cable they’ve ever received. Some people have a junk drawer of every allen...