Keeping tabs

Loose space

Two new drawings in the studio

This past Friday, the last things I did in the studio were these two drawings. Both were done on torn pieces of a larger, older drawing that I’d made years ago. I think it was from around 2012-2013. I’d used smaller bits of that same drawing last week for new collage experiments. I’d spent a lot of time on a painting that has turned out ok, but feels more constricted than I’d hoped for. I may keep it, but the jury’s still out on that front.

These two drawings, though not as involved as that painting (I’m not ready to share images of it, yet, but maybe soon) are nonetheless much closer to an ideal direction that I’m aiming for. Something a lot more free in its energy, line and forms. The surface, already having been painted on and providing a smooth substrate, was perfect for making these and I always like having something with an image on it already to work against. Hopefully, that image will add something to the final image. I wanted to continue working on these, but had to leave earlier than I usually do. I’ll be in there again tomorrow and will probably work on these and hopefully make a couple more. They could be templates for larger paintings.

---

Mist-erious fields

Views of Ponderosa Christmas Tree Farm

My girlfriend, Julia, and I had been debating off and on about whether to get an artificial tree or another real one for Christmas this year, almost as soon as we’d taken the last one to a local goat farm for recycling, of sorts. I didn’t know this previously, but apparently, fir tree needles are a delicacy amongst goats. The other part of real trees that pushed us in that direction again is that tree farms provide shelter and habitats for small animals and birds during the 11-15 years it takes for a large fir (6-7 feet) to mature. With us living in a city and the cost of just living being ridiculously expensive, along with the lower cost and positive environmental impacts, we opted to go a little out of our way to explore getting another real tree.

We wound up at Ponderosa Tree Farm, a family owned tree farm in Egg Harbor, NJ. Really beautiful place with good people working there. We arrived about an hour before they were closing, found a tree, loaded it up and went exploring the grounds a little. As we were walking around, a mist started creeping low across the fields, shrouding everything. The combination of the shaped trees and fog made for a pretty surreal experience. It felt like the beginning of a holiday horror movie. There were a few other people amid the trees with their kids and you could hear them, but not see anyone outside of a few yard radius.

It was a perfect time to get some photos, especially since I’d been kind of out of touch with my photographs lately; feeling like I’d been in a rut and generally feeling down about it. Photography isn’t a main focus for me, but it does feed parts of my creative side that painting can’t. I’ve been concentrating on capturing images related to my Daily Observations project, but lately that’s felt a bit stale and I haven’t been taking as many photos. This day at the farm automatically brought me out of that funk. The trees, fields and fog were almost too easy as subjects, but I couldn’t help but to take advantage of the magic I saw in front of me. Looking at these shots I feel a lot better now. I feel like there’s something here. They aren’t all great shots, but there’s enough there to make want to be a little more active and intentional about capturing images again. I have an Instagram feed dedicated to some of my photos here. It’s pretty low key, I barely use hashtags on my posts and most posts don’t have much in the way of captions. I prefer letting most of the images speak for themselves or I don’t have a sufficient amount to say about the image, so I’ll just post it and keep it simple.

---

Another run around the sun

Today, 12/10, is my birthday. It’s been raining all day and made it perfect for sleeping in and not getting up until almost 1:30 in the afternoon. I would’ve stayed in bed longer had it not been for the need of food. Last night, we had a last minute dinner/game “almost birthday” party with four friends. We went through four bottles of wine and had a blast playing Headbandz, a game where you have to guess what the object is on the card that’s in the headband on your head. The night didn’t end until 4 in the morning, after five bottles of wine and good food consumed. I’m so glad that I didn’t opt to go out and instead stay home with close friends. I’m also incredibly lucky to have a partner like my girlfriend who goes above and beyond to see to it that my birthdays are memorable. I often have a difficult time celebrating and making plans for myself and she’s great at coaxing me out of my head to do something fun for myself

Someone mentioned that they were sorry for the bad weather on my birthday in response to my birthday post on one of my social media feeds. I’m perfectly happy to have a rainy day that I can spend on the couch, recovering and doing absolutely nothing but keeping myself hydrated, fed and drifting in and out of naps. I’m just happy to be here to see another birthday. The weather doesn’t matter at all. I’m not one of those people who needs a “perfect” clear sunny day for my birthday. Having good people, good energy around me and my health matters most.

Continuing to make art matters, also. It’s the reason for almost everything that I do and the one thing that I feel relatively good at (depending on the day, lol). With all of the problems that come up with making art my full time occupation, it’s one of the things that keeps me having something to look forward to. I could stop painting tomorrow but there’s nothing that can take it’s place in my life. Art keeps me going, creates problems for me to solve and keeps me engaged with the world beyond merely existing.

---

Lastly, but in no way least, a big THANK YOU! to all of my subscribers! It’s been four months since relocating my blog to

Substack

and the growth in readers has been heartening. Since August, 40 readers have come on board and I’m grateful for you making space and time in your lives to read about my thoughts on my practice and life, in general. It means a lot to know that you’re intentionally receiving and reading my blog posts in your mail. One of my goals with this has been moving more of my attention away from social media and to connect more directly with interested readers with longer form writing. I feel like I’m succeeding in some ways, but still spend more time than I like on social media platforms. I’m trying harder to disengage a little on that front, but as a full-time artist, it’s necessary to dedicate a certain amount of time to maintaining an updated presence across platforms, as well as on my website. That’s different than what this blog is about. Even though this blog could be included under the umbrella of marketing, it’s more about just sharing as a human being. Also, while I’m mostly sharing about my own work and experiences, I may start to include thoughts about other artists’ work, as well, and/or sharing about their upcoming or current shows. The possibilities are endless, honestly.

The original purpose of this blog (started in 2004) was to get some of the things I think about as a creative person out into the world. It was a way of keeping a digital studio journal. I believe that there might be something, however minuscule, in my sharing about my experiences that could help someone else in some way. It also helps me because I get to hopefully become better at writing and articulating my thoughts about what I do, a win for both of us. However it happens, you’ll continue to hear from me at least once a week, maybe twice, if my brain isn’t fried from everything else that I need to accomplish.

Thanks for being here!

TM