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Finished another photo… Hmm… Need to keep trying.

Francis Bacon, Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1953

Despite feeling some need to create paintings, I’m not much of an art person. I’m not much for movements, education, following the stories behind pieces, marveling at hidden significances, or even remembering artists’ names… except for a couple artists who I’ve strongly connected to for often random or bizarre reasons.

Francis Bacon is one of those artists. His early surviving work is truly an amazing expression of a young man with some serious issues; issues that  I, as a young man when I was first exposed to him, felt some empathy with.

So it was with a special sense of awe that I slowly made my way through the retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday. Seeing those pieces “in the flesh” was one of the more inspirational moments I’ve had in a long time.

I really should remember to at least try to go see more art… and to turn that inspiration into actual done pieces.

I could barely care less about the Oscars last night. In fact, I had forgotten that they were even on until some friends over reminded us.

So, we fired up the rabbit ears and checked out Hugh Jackman’s opening number, which was fun (especially the part about not seeing The Reader). Then the awards got under way and I realized that there was only one award that mattered to me: whether they would award a movie with almost no speaking as the animated film of the year. The woman and I had a brief debate about this category being the “animated film of the year” not the “kid’s film of the year”. Then, thankfully, the Academy awarded the Oscar to Wall-E.

I should remember that there are still some places where people are brave enough to get behind unconventional projects.

After participating last year in the What’s the Hook project, I was eager to see how the work would be displayed publicly. After almost a year, the photos went up down in Red Hook next to Fairway over the Summer. Of course, the woman and I went to check them out, but while there got interested in the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition and their gallery space…

Three weeks later, last weekend, Art in Free Fall opened with two of my portraits (1 & 2) hanging on their walls. It all happened so fast, but so far it’s been a good experience.

I even launched a new site at clicknowforadditionalhappiness.com as a central location for the on going portraiture.

As always, I should remember to keep painting.

Maybe these are getting better… Hmm… I need to remember to keep trying.

Wow… where have I been!? At least I remembered to do another painting… hopefully I’ll remember to keep doing them.

Finally, a fast one… I gotta remember to keep up the pace.

Yeah, another painting… but it’s taking me too long to find time to paint.

I need to remember to make time…

This one seems a little different from the others as it sports strokes with more of a certain drunken insanity, but oh well… I really need to remember to keep trying to paint more often.