Autumn, Skeletons, and New Directions

Autumn is settling in around here. The leaves are starting to change color, the air is getting a little crisper, and the neighborhood is beginning its annual transformation into something between a Halloween festival and a very enthusiastic outdoor theater production.

My neighbors take Halloween decorating seriously. Over the past few weeks, lawns have been filling up with plastic skeletons, ghosts, witches, and gravestones bearing all sorts of amusing inscriptions. Some of these displays are pretty elaborate, and I have to admire the commitment. There's something fun about seeing the neighborhood get into the spirit of the season, even if a few of the skeletons look like they've been having a rough time of it.

Meanwhile, over at Home Depot, apparently Halloween is already old news. Christmas decorations have taken over a good chunk of the store, and the Halloween stuff has been relegated to the clearance area. I know retail stores have their own calendar to follow, but it seems a little early to be packing away the ghosts while the real leaves are still on the trees. I suppose the skeletons will just have to wait their turn.

A Painting Finds a New Home

On the art front, I have some happy news to share. My painting Linkage: Proof of Life was displayed at September's Fourth Friday event at Dole Mansion, and it sold!

Linkage: Proof of Life

This was a piece I was especially pleased with, so I'm delighted that someone connected with it enough to want to bring it home. There's always a little bit of a mixed feeling when a painting leaves the studio. I've spent time with it, worked through the decisions that brought it into being, and gotten used to having it around. But that's part of the reason I make art in the first place: I want these paintings to find their way out into the world and become part of someone else's life.

I'm grateful to everyone who takes an interest in my work, and especially to the person who decided to give Proof of Lifea new home. One of the unexpected pleasures of making a series is seeing the individual paintings eventually find their own paths.

A New Direction: Will They Speak to Us Again?

I've also recently finished a new painting with a rather long title: Will They Speak to Us Again?

It's related to my Linkage series, but it takes things in a somewhat different direction. A conversation with a painter friend helped set it in motion. He mentioned that he liked the way I'd been using shading and highlights to give some of the forms in my Linkage paintings a sense of depth. Then he asked whether I'd ever considered adding more depth of field to the images themselves.

That question stuck with me. I started thinking about forms that might exist in a space rather than simply sitting on the surface of the canvas. The result was a group of rounded, hollow, stone-like shapes that began to suggest sculptures, ancient monuments, and perhaps even something a little mysterious.

I found myself thinking about the great sculptors Henry Moore and Isamu Noguchi, as well as ancient stone circles and megalithic temples. The forms in the painting seem to belong to some other time, but I'm not sure whether they're remnants of a lost civilization, something that might exist in the distant future, or something entirely different.

The title came out of that uncertainty. Will these strange forms ever speak to us? Did they once have something to say? Or are we simply looking at them and imagining a story of our own?

Will They Speak to Us Again?

I like that the painting leaves those questions open. It still has some of the organic shapes and graphic qualities that have become familiar in my work, but the sense of space and the suggestion of a larger scene give it a different feeling. It's exciting to follow an idea somewhere unexpected and see what happens.

I don't know yet whether this will lead to more paintings in the same vein, but I'm happy to have followed the idea this far. Sometimes a small suggestion from another artist is just the nudge you need to open up a new possibility.

Onward Into Autumn

So that's where things stand as we move deeper into fall: the leaves are changing, the neighborhood skeletons are settling in for their big month, and the stores are already trying to hurry us into winter. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the satisfaction of seeing a painting find a new home and the excitement of discovering where the next one might lead.

Thanks, as always, for following along with my work. I appreciate everyone who visits the website, comes out to see the paintings in person, or takes a moment to share a thought or comment. It's great to have you along for the ride.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll enjoy autumn for a little while longer before I start worrying about Christmas.