Guess What I Found

  So, I'm cleaning up and sorting. Finding all sorts of things I haven't seen a very long time. I found some old art. Some of mine. Some a few choice pieces I have that others have created. In my first post on here, I told you that this painting was the first in the "deep shadow" style:

Which is right. Mostly. There was another I did a year or so before this one. It was a sunset over the water, framed by two curved palm trees. I spent over an  hour setting up that shot, and a few days painting it. I gave it to my then girlfriend's mother as a thank you for taking me with them to Disney World. I don't have a picture of that one, but I like to think it's still hanging somewhere and that I'll one day get a picture of it. But, I found this while digging through my archives:

It all came back to me. I was sharing an apartment with Mark Gonzalez, 1994/95. I was still recovering from the death of my best friend Ian. ( I'm sure he was murdered, not a suicide, but I can't prove it). I was drawing when I got home from work, which I mentioned in an earlier post ( along with a picture of the draped cloth I was using as a subject). I had some pastel paper that I had bought at Michaels. They were all going out of business and marking down their stuff 10% every week. I had purchased several colors, but I had a black one that I wanted to do something special with. I had an awesome mirror in my bedroom, so I propped my drawing board up and drew this self portrait. As I recall it only took fifteen minutes or so. I was happy with it. I'm still happy with it. It was way ahead of it's time. But....
   I found something else while I was cleaning out my little piece of heaven:

This little gem. I painted it in 1985. For my mother. For Christmas. It's not really black, it's a deep, dark purple. It might as well be black. Except I was in a "real artists don't use black" phase. Ten years before the one just above. A good fourteen years before "First Painting". I hadn't really thought about how long this idea germinated. Or how far ahead of myself I really was. Or where I'd be right now if I'd taken all this more seriously a whole lot sooner. Ah, well, regrets are the basis for great songs and great paintings.

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