Finishing Touches - April 2017

A lot is happening these days. Five months ago I started a new job, my paintings are getting better, I will be purchasing the house next door for teaching art, my work has been selling and I am moving in the direction of making merchandise out of my botanical work.

People who have known me a long time know that I can be a very productive person. But I feel recently foundational change has been happening with each new decision. How has this situation come about?

I have a daughter who is attending college in a foreign country. Before she left I always had a track in my brain reserved for her. Whether she was around my house, at her mother's house or somewhere else, there was a part of my brain that constantly cared for her, wondered what she was doing, worried that I might need to act at a moments notice. I still think about her all the time, but that worry track in my brain has been freed up giving me more creative space up in my noggin'. My new job also is much less stressful than my last. I no longer am trying to run five different programs with forty community partners. I now am setting up one program focused on one thing: public art. This has also loosened up creative space in my brain.

Financially, last summer I was able to unload a house that I had inherited in a divorce. Although there was good reason to keep the house all these years since I inherited it, it was a financial drain. But it was time, and because I sold it, I now am able to purchase the house next to me and expand what I really like to do.

I have always been someone who has not focused on himself. I have been happy over the years to be a bit of a caretaker. I have a lot of abilities and have been happy to share and help where I can. But I would also use this as an excuse to not focus on myself. Somewhere in my travels I came to realize that not focusing on myself led me down a road that did not make me happy. Now, of course, I am not going to go super-gonzo on myself and exclude helping others, but I have learned that true happiness cannot happen if you are not fostering yourself -- if you are not creating opportunities to grow into yourself. I have been acting on this new understanding... and seeing a difference.

I do not take all this for granted. I have been around long enough to know that anything can end at a moments notice. I am happy to move forward into my most full self while knowing that one of the fun things about this is that I get to bring my friends, family, students and art fans with me.

Jack in the Pulpit Art Studio is Moving!!

Classes at my current studio are coming to an end this month. I will soon be moving classes to the house next door to me at 1022 Burgess Street. This small house will become a teaching art studio. I will be continuing to teach watercolor and oil painting classes, but will also have some friends teaching a class or two. I will be renovating the space this summer and classes will begin again in the fall of 2017.

Students will enjoy this space more as it is dedicated art teaching space, there will be no stairway to climb and there will be a little more room than in my studio. There will be updates, as well as before and after pictures, here at this blog and at Jack-in-the-Pulpit Art Studio.

Oil Painting: Granite Face

Granite Face

Oil Paint on Canvas

48" x 48"

This painting is of a face of granite on Mallard Island of Rainy Lake near International Falls, MN. Although, from the island, this bit of water seems open to the great waters that stretch twenty three miles to the east, this area can be calm as there are islands on three sides. I find the rhythm of this lake captures my own personal rhythm and calms me down, simplifies my understanding of life, and brings me internal peace. I try to capture this by heightening the rhythm of the water pattern. Strong geometric shapes across the water's surface bring a sense of strength and calm to the landscape. To me, that is the North.

Upcoming Exhibits

I have a solo exhibition at Reverie Cafe and Bar  in South Minneapolis from **June 1 - July 31**. *Note the date change for this show.

I will be exhibiting work from the Edibility series. There won't be an official opening, but I will be hanging out at the counter at Reverie on Thursday, June 22 and Tuesday, July 25 from 5:00pm - 8:00pm if people want to say "hello" and ask questions.

 In September, I will be in a three person show at Banfill-Locke Art Center in Fridley, MN. More details to come.