Today is the first day of a new decade. How weird. How weird that I have lived through a few decades. I don’t feel all that old. I kinda still feel like I’m 8. Well anyway, good riddance to 2009. A thorn in my side. I made a stupid rhyme. I’m not once for New Year’s resolutions, but I have quite a few this time. I had my last cigarette yesterday. (Make way for dramatic mood swings.) And I have to lose all the weight I put on this past year. A year and a half actually, because it started with all the fast food in Las Vegas while staying in hospice with my dad. I’ve been eating badly ever since as a form of comfort and depression. So all that is going to stop and regular exercise will become a priority. Not only will it be better for me physically, it will apparently take me out of the doldrums – so say the doctors.

January I will begin working on a new series of paintings for my show in the fall at George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles. I’m looking forward to making the work. A little nervous about it too, but that’s a good thing I suppose. While working on it all, I’m also going to be embarking on a project that is totally different for me: a stop-motion animation project. I am lucky enough to partner up with UK artist Susan Holloway who is going to help me with making 2 short films. I am trying to get funding for the project, but if I don’t get it, I am still going to inch my way through the project slowly but surely.

I started to employ a part time assistant. That is totally new. And strange. I have never done that before and it’s not easy to let go of things or even know exactly what to divvy out. It forces me to organize my days a lot more because I have to give her something to do for the hours she is here that will essentially make it easier for me to just paint. It’s weird to let someone else do my administrative stuff because I’m such a control freak. It requires trust. She is one of my best friends, so I got lucky on that front. Having her seal panels and stuff like that will be interesting, and probably easy. It’s not brain surgery. Overall though, it’s very different, but it’s making me work more because I’m on a schedule part of the week. The rest of the week I can go into the studio at my leisure, so I still have time to do crack and drink whiskey.