“I love every piece I’ve painted, at least for a little while.”
November of 2019. I just quit my job as Director of Software at the Will County Courthouse in Illinois. Having spent a lifetime in the private sector, I never really adapted to the mindset of the public sector. As a Director, I had been “written up” for being seen with my feet up on my desk late one afternoon. I had been scolded by my management, with the head of Human Resources in attendance, for saying “that’s above my pay grade” in a meeting with employees who made less than me. I was told not to fraternize with other employees because they were union, and we just don’t do that, so I spent an entire year eating lunch at my desk, alone in my office. I was constantly being monitored for taking one too many “4.35 minute cigarette breaks”. Yes, I timed them. So when they attempted to lower my salary to help offset an unforeseen shortfall in budget I had had enough. My comment was “This is not what I had agreed to”, and that was that.
Faced with very little income, okay, zero income, I decided to re-start my Art career from thirty years ago. Daunting. I had no supplies. I had no divine inspiration from some mystical muse. I had no current customer base. No gallery connections. I did have, however, a smattering of pieces I had attempted over my very long sabbatical from full time painting, and I would use these images somehow to forge a new style of work suitable for a new life in the Arts.
Collisioning – 2005 
GeoGesture – 1999 
Granite & Fire – 2005
I wanted the new work to be bright. I wanted it to be energetic. I needed it to be repeatable. It had to be fun for me to create. It had to be bold and brash and even bombastic so as to fit well with my personality. I’m not exactly a wall-flower to be around, be that for good or for bad, it’s just the way I turned out.
The first piece took a relatively long time to produce. I had many misfires and repainted surfaces. Multiple attempts too closely resembled my earlier work. I struggled to find new signatures (a term I use for personally unique, stylistic techniques for making marks), And then, almost effortlessly, the first piece emerged. Call it inspiration. Call it destiny. Call it whatever you want, I was able to produce something that fit all of my requirements and I could be proud to share. Even if this pride was short lived. At the moment, I thought it was a strong piece. I still do, I simply have moved on since then. I’m back.
