What’s Next: Pours Up Close

Recently I have been thinking some about my “what’s next” now that Covid and all of its social and emotional restrictiveness seem to be abating. This, somewhat surprisingly, has been a little frustrating partly because new exciting ideas, motivating vistas and guiding vision haven’t just immediately materialized in my old brain. Why? Maybe Covid has made me lazy. During the pandemic, the parameters of my art were narrow and always buffered with abundant excuses for why I wasn’t pushing to envision the future. My inner voice just urged me to hunker down and help myself and others maintain a healthy waiting pattern. In fact, I actually experienced a lot of creative productivity during the pandemic, and fell in love with pours, their spontaneity and emergent quality seemed a perfect metaphorical backdrop for the uncertainties of the pandemic. Also the “sub-creating” and “world making” of landscapes within the movement of the pigments really provided a safe and satisfying flow state in my isolated and secluded studio. Pours became sort of “therapeutic” and addictive, and now I find myself being pulled back into doing more pours (which I love) but find them less compelling, there is a nagging feeling I should be doing something else. “After a Rainy Night” and “Pure Water” are fun pieces that carry the energy expected from an emergent pour but also some of my anxious waiting for newly engineered post-covid vision, my “what’s next”.

“After a Rainy Night”

“Pure Water”