Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Bill Morris at White Flag


For a long time now I’ve been transitioning from small canvases to larger canvases. This process has a whole set of issues to deal with including composition, colors, amount of paint, types of brushes, space, etc, etc, etc… All of these things have to come together or the whole piece will just fall apart. There has to be a point where spontaneity and carefully laid plans will work with one another in a painting and trying to find that has been the main challenge. The subject for this challenge is my friend Bill Morris. He’s a talented musician and video artist who’s been working in St. Louis for a long time now. This picture is from a performance he did with Thomas Sleet and a cello player whose name escapes me right now at White Flag Projects about 3 or 4 years ago. The strange thing about all this is I’ve been thinking about painting this picture for about 4 months now and last night I finally got around to it. After I finished for the evening, I checked my email and Bill had sent me a note informing me he was performing with Thomas and Tony Patti at the Sci-Fi Lounge on Thursday night. Now since both Bill and I have busy personal lives we rarely see or talk to one another and I can’t remember the last time we emailed but the very day I start of painting of him (unbeknownst to him) I get a note from him…spooky.

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