John Dewey wrote in 1934:

Industry has been mechanized and an artist cannot work mechanically for mass production...Artists find it incumbent ...to betake themselves to their work as an isolated means of 'self-expression.' In order not to cater to the trend of economic forces, they often feel obliged to exaggerate their separateness to the point of eccentricity.

I am consoled after reading one of my youngest student's journal entries. She quotes Klee:

Colour has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase it, I know that it has a hold of me forever...Colour and I are one. I am a painter.

Since moving away from New York after graduate school I have often visited to frequent my old turf, catch whatever glitter and glam may be displayed in Chelsea, admire the master works in museum collections, and go home broke again. During my most recent trip I spent much of my time in the Met and the MoMA.
I fell in love with Stella's sculptures on the roof of the Met. I also stumbled across this wonderful book, High Times, Hard times, New York Painting, 1967-1975. I highly recommend it if you are a painter.
MoMA:


Stella

Citysystem Drawings from New York, 2005

Citysytem, mixed media on acetate,
48x36", 2005



Citysytem, mixed media on acetate,
48x36", 2005



Citysytem, mixed media on acetate,
48x36", 2005

New Paintings

Dia, oil on canvas, 60x36", 2007



Settle, oil on panel, 12x12", 2007



Seam, oil on panel, 12x12", 2007



Espero, oil on canvas, 60x36", 2007


Paintings:
To define, compartmentalize, homogenize, label and sort is a
necessity, even compulsion.
An urgency to define forms and edges persists, yielding a concern for contrast and gravity. A silent excavation becomes as layers are added and removed. Pictorially there is a hovering between representation and abstraction, as the image fades. The solemnity of what is emphatically known cultivates the resting image.

A few images of my new work from the group show "Emerging & Established" at Les Yeux du Monde Gallery in Charlottesville, VA.