Mental Trips

I started this blog as a way to write. But perhaps it would be better if I just made audio recordings of stories. I seriously spent the past few minutes worrying over whether the photo should be above or below the text! Over analytical or neurotic, you decide...

We just moved to the Philadelphia suburbs and our backyard is a wild place owned by a cemetery. Someday I guess it will all be neatly groomed plots for the dead but at the moment it is a wild and wonderful place. I almost was eaten alive by some kind of wild rose bush when I went hiking to take these photos. I was amazed by the way that the vines wrap around the trees and then are encapsulated within the tree. (Seems like the photo should go here...)

I'm painting trees in the studio as well, grappling with all kinds of important things. I have told students many times that there is, in my experience, absolutely no relationship between how it feels to make a painting and how good it is. I heard an interview with Tom Hanks one time and they asked him if he knew that "Bonfire of the Vanities" would be a bad movie while he was making it. I loved what he said because I've experienced it so many times myself. He said that he believes completely in what he is doing while he is doing it. That there was no difference in how it felt to make a hit or a failure.