what I'm working on lately

I have a sculpture in the works that is my very first interpretive project. By interpretive, I mean, the model posed for about three sessions, enough for me to get down his attitude and form, leaving me with enough information to listen and visualize the rhythms of the pose, connect with my instincts, my soul, and conjure up something all mine. What will I do with that block of clay his leg is resting on? What is the moment he is living in? What am I choosing to express here?

I'm thinking about these artistic choices throughout my days while at work, hoping I can do justice to this model's absolutely magnificent body, somewhere between masculine and feminine grace. In all my time of working with models, I have only found a few that inspire me to a degree that seems otherworldly. Their work somehow makes a lightning jolt connection to my visual synapses igniting instant images that seem to flow in front of my eyes like postcards or snapshots...they are there, right there. The question is, have my skills progressed enough in order to express what I see and feel? What direction should I take this, I ask myself...should he be fantasy or sheer realism?

I have a feeling my dreams will tell me. Or a few glasses of wine and some music, or perhaps a few life drawing sessions @ Lenny's group or Sadie's, or more likely, my sketchbook and warm bed.

I am also working on my blog. I have not been happy with the layout on this blog, so I'm planning to go totally custom. I have a header and footer as well as side pieces in the sketch phase, which I plan to post very soon as a work in progress.

When I was in art school, no one ever told me that at some point you enter into a phase where wondering what to say becomes all encompassing. Making a statement is harder than I thought. When I was 19 and in art school it seemed so easy. twenty years later making a statement, a true unabashed statement of who I am/was, is harder. Maybe it's the idea that now it 'counts'. Now I have to be real. My ideas these days about art are more complex as I gain a personal history, as we all undoubtedly do. My influences have expanded beyond what they originally were, due mainly to the community of artists I am surrounded by. I am in a state of perpetual evolution; no longer am I only a realist alla prima painter. I am something in addition to that.