Turning Fear Into Fire

Hard to know where to begin on such a historic occasion, not to mention I'm completely exhausted and not feeling especially articulate. Never have I been this proud of my country. Thank you for taking the time to make the right choice, America. This truly is progress (at risk of sounding like every cliche you've heard thusfar) and I am excited for the new era this will usher in. This country had all sorts of back-water excuses to fear a Black President, but I'm happy to find that enough people have gotten passed this sort of deeply woven and highly ignorant thinking to see the larger scope. America just might survive after all.

I spent my election day alone with a big blank canvas. Later in the evening, I began jumping back and forth from my painting to cnn.com to check the stats. I didn't expect this much of a blow out - nor this early of a decision - but I'm thrilled for it needless to say. Part of me wishes I was in among Probama friends in Brooklyn (where apparently fireworks were shot off moments after the announcement), Midtown where the televised NY mob congregated, Reading PA where I would have likely done some canvassing with Kevin and his crew, or certainly anywhere in Chicago where I stomped around just two days ago. My celebration was quiet, but I did share the acceptance speech via msnbc.com with the fellow artist resident Jen Van Winkle - which I was touched to witness as most of us probably were.

Back to the painting... My intimidation of the 51x46" blank canvas was finally put to bed - I did some serious damage to that bad boy and it's looking really nice. So far this residency I've done much smaller canvases (2x3 ft, etc) for a variety of reasons (less shipping costs, less prep, less materials - and the fact that I'm a little bit of a pussy who didn't want to jump out of a comfort zone) but now I'm more comfortable than ever and can't wait to finish this one so I can start another big one. This photos don't exactly give it proper scale, but it's the largest I've worked since (I think) college.

"You can't tame these horses..."

("wild wild horses" by atmosphere)

Back in Peoria, in the studio for close to 11 hours today and feelin' every moment of it. Finally finished two of the three I had in progress, started and completed another vinyl piece, and - though it may not look it from the photo - made some good progress on the DJ jawnt. Gotta get some rest to tackle the big blank canvas tomorrow.

Unrelated, but I must say the midwest is as charming as it wants to be... temperatures in the mid 70s today and gas at $2.09/gallon. Hopefully the good vibes will continue through election day. OBAMA / BIDEN 2008. Do'it.

And You Say Chi City...

I gotta say, Chicago is my kind of town. And having an extra hour didn't hurt my recovery either. Can't wait to get back with a little more time on my hands. This trip definitely has fueled me mentally and although I'd rather kick it in the Chi a little longer, I'm amped to get back into the studio in Peoria (though it's been REAL nice being away from the ethanol/wonderbread funk).

Here are a few highlights of the weekend...

Millennium Park:

Cedar Walton @ Jazz Showcase:

Arch Cruise:

Guitar Shorty @ Buddy Guy's Legends:

Art Institute:

crobar Chicago:

"If you can't pull it, all you gotta do is push it along..."

("push it along" by a tribe called quest)

It's over 24 hours since the Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series Championship and I'm still feeling the rush - Holy SHIT! :D Seriously! We did it man! Took 28 years to get back but we did it! Finally a Phillies championship for MY lifetime!!! Although it would have been nice to be among other Phillie fans - or at least on the east coast where there might at least be some sympathizers within ear shot - but that didn't stop me from screaming my face off when Lidge nailed that final K. I can only imagine how good the vibe in Philly must be right now...

At any rate, I still have a smile on my face and I'm still an oil painting animal. Here's some pics of the progress over the last couple of days. Granted, I'm a little behind in schedule as far as where I wanted to be at this point, but I have two paintings very close to completion and another not far behind.

Just for the sake of fast confidence, I busted off this quickie tonight. As usual, sorry for all the nasty glares, I'll get some nice final images up once the residency's complete.

I'm off to Chicago this weekend to meet up with my parents and reacquaint myself with big city stimulation. I'll no doubt post some pics of my antics out there - as well as hit the studio with even greater vigor upon my return. Now that the Phils got their big win and now that my absentee ballot is in the mail, I can focus on the next big win - OBAMA 2008 Presidential Champion, no doubt. :)

I gotta say it was a good day...

It was a slow start to the day, considering the amount of wine and beer I consumed the night prior, but overall the day ended in my favor. First and foremost, I finally finished a time-intensive painting - about frickin' time! The photo doesn't do it justice whatsoever, but I'll be sure to post a properly scanned version at a later date. I also got a jump on another painting, which I plan to bust off much quicker than the first.

To top it all off - Philadelphia Phillies yo. Spanked the Rays 10 to 2, putting them 1 win away from the championship. How nuts is that!?!

First drunk night in Central ILL

PHILADELPHIA!!! 2 GAMES UP!!!

Worked on a drawing for a couple of hours today - but the main event was a dinner party at the residency house. A gang of Bradley University MFA grad students paid us a visit and cooked up a sweet spread. Add some good wine, beer, and music into the mix - boom, good times had. Here goes a couple pics from the night (it was actually way more bumpin' than these photos suggest, but humor me)...

"I might have been born yesterday, sir, but I stayed up all night"

("up all night" by el-p)

I know I quote that El-P lyric a lot, but it always seems appropriate - especially after being shacked up with oil paint and canvas all Friday night.

Almost 10 hrs in the studio today - and still no finished paintings! All good, I have three sexy mofos on the brink. The Santos Party House jawnt has been pretty labor intensive, but it's gonna be sweet, I'm excited. That should definitely be complete sometime this weekend.

On an unrelated note, Sarah Palin is twice as dangerous as she is stupid, seriously. VOTE OBAMA 2008. Peace.

"My method is uncertain, it's a mess but it's working..."

("please please please" by fiona apple)

One down, three to go! Go Phillies!!! :)

I cut my workday a little short on account of the game, but here's a taste of where things are at after 3 days (sorry about the glare).

Peoria's Riverfront & Where Else I Be

I'll apologize ahead of time if this post comes off as just filler. I'll post some painting progress tomorrow, but for now I just wanted to share a few pics I took this morning (before I locked myself in the studio for 9 hours straight). Here's few shots of the Peoria Riverfront (facing the Illinois River)...

And since it was so nice out, I took a couple shots of both the exterior of the Arts Center as well as the house I'm staying in (the shot with the white car represents my end of the property as well as my sweet sweet ride).

More interesting content to come, I promise.