Arrival, acrylic on canvas 22 x 28"

A goal is a dream with a deadline.
Napoleon Hill

I am going as fast as I can,  pitched headlong towards a deadly deadline or glorious goal, however you perceive it. For me the perception changes moment to moment. But however you interpret the semantical nuance I will be hanging a show on March 14 that opens on March 25 at the Feick Art Center in Poultney Vermont.

Sometimes deadlines are useful. Sometimes they are painful. This one just seems impossible. My head is spinning with ideas, but so are the hands of time spinning, ever faster.

Ideas interrupted. Interrupted last fall by a complicated journey. A journey which informed these paintings with fiery color and imagery: colors of Santa Fe and the Southwestern horizons. They seem rather incongruous here in this Vermont world of gray tree trunks, white snow, and lavender shadows.

Ideas interrupted now by the daily tasks of living and teaching since I got back. Yet when I immerse myself in the task of painting I am filled with serenity. Well yes, serenity but also frustration- why the heck don’t colors blend they way they’re supposed to? How does the raven’s claw really look when it curls around the barbed wire? How did it get to be 2:30 am?

Murmurs (Susurro) Fired clay, soon to be enhanced with acrylic color.

The clock is ticking…

Kilns to fire, sculpture to enhance with color, paintings to finish.

But if I didn’t have this deadly deadline, this glorious goal, I might not have the intensity of focus that I have now. I might not be as  dedicated and on task. Which is what I need to be right now.

Back to work.