In the afternoon—in my studio.

Just taking my lunch out of the microwave and looking toward the future.

Spent a great day in my studio this week. I haven't  had as many hours as as usual but I've had some very productive time. I've finished a series of eight drawings. Each drawing has an indigo field in the center. Only three components: indigo matte field, graphite grid, and white ink.

I was thrilled to have Don Brewer visit my studio at 1241 Carpenter. We had a great time opening up my flat files and talking about my drawings stored inside as well as the kinds of materials I like to use when I make my work. I gave him the full studio tour.

excerpt from Don Brewer's post on my studio building 1241 Carpenter Street. The link to the full article is at the end of this post.

I spent a long day in the studio Sunday.

I walked over from home; took a different route and enjoyed the cool weather. By the time I got up to my studio I was feeling a bit more tired than invigorated by the walk. I decided I didn't have the energy to make drawings on the wall.

I poured a tall glass of water and put on a half pot of coffee as usual.

I've begun organizing my studio for the upcoming Philadelphia Open Studio Event. The weekend is coming up quickly and I'm working to get ready. I've made a number of new drawings and that has left the studio a mess. Tools paper and drawing implements everywhere.

POST is a great time to get the studio in order before the weather gets to cold to open the windows and doors.

Worked for hours organizing drawings in the studio.

Open Studios is coming and it's an interesting time for self assessment. What new work do I want to show? What old drawings do I want to try to push out into the world?

I've got work in progress I can put on one wall to talk about — visitors like to see work in progress an in an informal way. It's always interesting to think about letting some one, anyone into this very private space.

Had a great day in the studio last tuesday. Took a couple pics. Digital photography is great but I really want wireless transfer. I know I can take a shot or two with my iPhone but I like using my camera and that means transferring from my memory card to my laptop and then uploading to my Flickr account. No. I don't upload images to FB because I find their TOS (Terms of Service) offensive. At flickr I control the rights of each and every one of my images individually. (I'm looking forward to seeing what Google + has to offer. I hate Facebook in O so many ways.)

Three drawings that I had started that were staring at me have moved ahead quite a bit. More experimentation with some oil pastels and drawing with strange objects that push away the pastels. Some of the objects help me score the surfaces creating grooves that doing catch any new pigment.

I have a fourth and it is just beginning to take shape — I'm not showing it here. It will come soon.

It's great to get some squares on the wall again and get some energetic drawings going. We'll see what they look like next week.

Got to the studio after running errands early this morning.

Took awhile to get started but by the time I left progress had been made. I finally feel like work is starting is to spill out. These drawings use an under layer of soft pastel and an upper layer of oil pastel. Some metallic. color. Some scraping and scratching. You can't see the metallic in this quick photo.

Looking forward to getting back in and working more.

All of that reassessment, organization, and letting things go — also known as the month of June — is over. Now I'm on an art holiday and will have four glorious days to spend in my studio making work.

New month new energy. Summer temperatures are baking my brain and it seems that I am finally ready to make some new work. The temperatures also make drawing with oil pastels glorious. It's like drawing with butter.

Took out the giant pastels they are inspiring in every way.

June has been a month of reassessment, organization, and letting go of things. I'm in the studio now. I have been using tools all morning. Ladders are my friend.

I know that this is just a matter of getting my brain and my body ready to make some new art. Everything is moving around in my head. The me and the studio haven't been ready to accept new work. Soon though... Today has been a day of clearing surfaces and putting things away.

Maybe I will be able to tear some paper and get it ready for new drawings.