it's about painting

Hello. So I know that my posts of late have sounded like rantings from an over privileged mid-century queen and to you I say Fuck you. Just kidding, sorry Mom. Seriously though, over privileged?? I don't think she reads it as she is just figuring out email but you never know. It is a word after all and I've used it so much in the course of my life that to deny it now is stupid. I do love that I can be appropriate when the time calls for it. Okay here I go, the probability of rambling is very high.

One more thing. I am entering a juried show with an unusual deadline date. There are two first being January 11th and then a second one through the 25th of January for an additional ten dollars. I like that. They make money and artists have a second option. Wait a minute if they just made one deadline the twenty-fifth everyone would win. Yet another way to screw the little guy. Desperate artists trying to get the work seen and subjecting themselves to a slim chance in hell of being selected. John is insisting that I enter and He is right. They have no size restrictions, if the work is large you have to install it yourself but being a control freak that will make everyone happy. Listen to me thinking like there is a chance. Hey I'm very optimistic but I am also rational and I see the future. Thank you very much.

Back to painting. I am working and was thinking blah, blah,blah that maybe one of the reasons I do not talk about it so much is that it's all new and I feel like I am going by the seat of my pants. I made some major changes to my two 86"x86" paintings and while in the act I wondered if I would miss the way it was then looking at them and loving them more so I guess the decision to work some more was the right one. They are better paintings I think, assuming I know what I'm talking about.

I'm listening to a very drool banjo player who is playing live with other banjo players. He is brilliantly funny and makes jokes through out the show. I have to get His name. He just did an amazing impersonation of Bob Dylan. This guy is a gift.

Lee Marvin

Hello, Just turned the television on and found a movie with a young Sissy Spasek and Lee Marvin, looking a little long in the tooth. He actually looked drugged which is not such a nice thing to see or say. I am a very big Lee Marvin fan although I've seen very little of his career. A little bit of an intense Vivian Leigh picture. She is past it on a boat and He is a stud and hustler. One of His big Macho pictures with a cast of a dozen men. Maybe "The Dirty Dozen" And of course late career "Gorky Park" He is brilliant and scary.

I am about to clean up and go pick John up at Macarthur Airport. Well what do you know. I'm having a physical exam on Monday and at fifty my first "recommended" prostate exam. Luckily it is not my first and I am anticipating no change so again there you go. I do wish that I could get into a better exercise regime. I am trying and stretching and working it out it just doesn't feel like it's regular. It is a very odd feeling. Like my days are so busy or things just one after the other and I am going through it in a trance. Lay off the crack you might say??

Seriously though, I guess it's a part of getting older. The big canvases more and more seem monumental. Smaller things are certainly easier. I have had a good couple of days in the studio. Things are moving forward for me and I think they look sophisticated. I'm hooked on white but that is another story. I've been shaving my head and face well while I was in Florida since I've been home I've been lazy but I will tonight as it will make me feel better and I've got to wash the funk away for John.

back in nyc crazy as ever

Hello. So I am back in NYC and in the country, in the studio getting back, getting reaquainted with work and life. We had a great time in Florida relaxing and playing tennis. More later just wanted to check in. When John, michael and I went to see the Fontainebleau Hotel we saw a William Wood diptych hanging beautifully behind a beautiful desk.

I'm back and loving myself if I could quote Kath. You can skip to the last paragraph where I actually have something to say.

I am back and wanted to talk about the pain that I have had in my right arm for a while just attributed it to tennis and getting old but I forget that a year ago my arm was frozen two weeks before my Dad's death and I am feeling pain all the way down my arm pretty full time. Amazingly this is not an exaggeration. But I am not taking anything so it is not that bad just constant. No shit no it is painful I do shiatsu techniques on my arm all the time and use a squeeze ball for both arms and drink as much coffee as possible.

John's mother gave me a book on Obama for Christmas. And I was looking through it last night in the city and there is a photo of Renee Flemming in total matching red Scarf and Gorgeous Coat in capitol letters . Probably Gaultier or some obscure great designer, I'd like to think the Met Opera dress maker extraordinaire. John and I saw Her with Her secretary shopping on my street W. 28th. She was dressed down but so impressive a presence I felt so lucky to have bwwn in the same room with her. I've also seen Audra Mcdonald on W. 28th. Diva Central. They've all been there, why not after all it is a destination for those looking for some beauty for their home in NYC. I dread the day that the street is not occupied by flower stores even though it's all bad for the environment. Wow I am embarrassed to say that I haven't really thought about the impact of the flower business on the world. It's fucking it up! That is horrible that I haven't really thought of that I'll say it again.

Anyway, I am reading Thomas Friedmans " Hot, Flat and Crowded", 2.0 updated and expanded and it is the most important thing to read however shocking and frightening . The fate of the next generations depends on us changing our behaviors, He is able to explain everything and writes facts beautifully. I can't believe what I am saying is not fiction. The reality is this planet will be very different if we, and by default "It" stays on the same course. How sad that the beauty of the planet is not enough for us to respect it, take care of it.

He also writes about the banking disaster. The idea of "Hot" Comparing the melting of the Polar Caps and global warming and the melt down of Wall St. forgetting values and letting incredible greed take over and now the result. Genius comparisons!!! the terrible saying,

I B D / Y B D, I'll be dead / You'll be dead, a saying I think bankers made up. Great eh?? Thanks a fucking lot guys. Like that would not be enough we also have terrorism to deal with where a person will strap explosives to themselves and take innocent people with them for their sick imbalanced beliefs. Crazy men preying on weak, crazy people, confused and vulnerable because of life's situations, or real mental imbalances. Believing in crazy notions of afterlife. Ideas stemming from fear and desire. Do they still think they are going to a place where there are virgins satisfying their every whim. Maybe it's just one virgin. I don't know. I'm listening to the only music uploaded to my laptop. What some would consider painful a collection of Classical Christmas songs and Bab's latest Christmas collection dedicated to Donna Karan's deceased husband. He looked like a very nice guy. Very sad that He died so young. How appropriate to end this on Babs a person who cares so much about the world, she's been talking about it for decades.