AVAILABLE WORK

Thursday, November 24, 2022

The new Oldsmobiles are in early this year

 Yeah winter showed up like a tax form from the government. We are having a "white Thanksgiving" here at the farm this year. The good news is I was out on the ice, 4", and did this painting on the 21st. If anybody did an earlier painting on the ice this winter in the lower 48 states, I want to know who that bastard is! 

Being on the river a few times lately, is like going home to me. A place to escape politics, capitalism, idiots(mainly), the news, everyone and everything. No music, no advertising, no farms, no nothing except the wildlife refuge. I owe it to myself to do a series of just the river before I die. The river has been a gift.







Saturday, November 12, 2022

Catching up

     So I got a little busy. We made it through our schedule and at the end, out of sheer madness I guess, I added Memphis. I worked 6 months straight with no days off and got COVID 19 as my beer chaser reward. 

     In the meantime The Leigh Yawkey Museum bought my painting for it's permanent collection which made me extremely happy, for not only are Katie and I in their permanent collection, I know my Grandma would have been beaming with pride. Katie and I were the first married couple from Wisconsin to ever be in the Birds In Art Show at the same time. I don't do museum shows. I don't apply to things other than art fairs, and clearly I can't keep up with that anymore, so this was special for me.

    All I know is next year I am doing 4 maybe 5 art festivals tops. Never again do I want to work a schedule like this past year. Now I have all these loose ends to deal with and it feels dysfunctional. Doing shows are a blast and I can not say enough how much fun I have meeting people. My paintings open a lot of doors for me, of which I am very grateful for. That said I can't go on like this anymore. At every show people tell me, "No you have to come back, we love your work." Well, it is like that at the following show and people don't travel with us and see what it is like. It is like being on tour but in between gigs you are writing new songs and at the next show you are relying on the new shit to make your living. It is fucking exhausting. Only reluctantly am I an Art Star. Without a doubt I can say I have given it everything I could and that feels damn good. Seriously how many people give everything they have to give to something they love? I know I am truly blessed.

     We are both writing a book, and have written everyday this year recording all the madness. We are going to keep restoring our farm. We got the land put into the Pollinator Program with the USDA and are very excited to see the land be transformed.We are going to slow down. We are going to do work that is more ambitious and we don't have to care if it sells or not moving forward. We have about 8 more months to bust our asses, and then we are making a change. Maybe it will be a sabbatical. Maybe semi-retirement. I don't know and I don't have to know. Clearly I am never going to stop being an artist, it is who I am to my core. 

I will post a few paintings in my available works page soon in case anyone wants anything for Christmas. 

Katie and I have a gallery show at the Tory Folliard Gallery in Milwaukee in March.

Thank you all for helping me get through the loss of my Grandma, she is so strong in my memory it is like she is still here with me everyday.