I guess I should announce this sooner than later. I’m going to give up my studio come August. To a few, this isn’t a shock, but maybe it sounds very sad. Maybe it sounds like a giant demotion. before I got my studio, all I did was complain about not having one and how much I missed Angels Gate. Missing Angels Gate will never go away because there is just no other place on Earth like it. I am not giving up my current studio because it’s not like Angels Gate. I never expected it to be. I’m not giving it up because I hate it. I like it very much. I don’t even know if I’m about to disclose my reasons here or not, but I’m leaving it to artist Stephanie Mercado.

So where am I going to be working from now on? At home. Work has started on my garage to make it a little more bearable, plus there is a room in the house for small stuff. It’s quiet here, private and I will boast a little about my pretty little garden: it’s pretty. My favorite thing about working at home: privacy. I know there’s a whole “thing” attached to the professional side to being an artist where you bring in visitors and do studio visits. I’m probably shooting myself in the foot a bit by taking this out of the equation, but I’ve learned a little bit about myself, or rather, finally accepted something about myself. I don’t like having visitors in my work space so much. Occasionally, depending on the person, depending on the objective, yes, it’s okay. Open Studios, etc.: not my cup of tea.

Not to sound like some kind of snobby prima donna, but art making has become a sacred ritual for me, and so is the space I make it in. Letting people in is like letting someone prance all over my underwear or look in my bathroom cabinets. I can do my best to make sure my gallery has more work on hand and try to get more people to my exhibits if they want to see the work in person. That’s about all I can do.

This blog is a nice way to show little peeps of things I’m working on, I don’t mind that so much. It’s kinda fun and I like to stay behind the scenes. You don’t get to see how fat I’m getting or hear my cartoony voice. Here’s a painting I’ve worked on last week. I’m waiting for it to dry so I can do the embroidery. It’s called Danarama and it’s 30 x 30 inches, oil on linen.

Today was my dad’s birthday so I went to my parents’ graves, as tomorrow is the also the one year anniversary of my mom’s death. Weird, weird, weird. It does not seem like it’s been a whole year. I gave them each a giant rose I cut out of my garden and attached little notes and mementoes to them. A Bit-o-honey for Dad and a cigarette for my mom. Then my brother showed up and we all wound up talking about death, God, heaven and hell and the bible. I left feeling totally irritated.

Yesterday I updated my blog (as you can see to the right) and started a list of “artists I love” links. I’ll add to the list as I think of more artists. I have a feeling the list is going to get pretty long.

I’ve been working on a few different pieces at once, all of Dan. 2 34-inch square paintings, and a 30 x 40 embroidery piece of many different fabric Dans that will take a while to complete. Those are at the studio. At home, I’m adding a few new drawings to the Journal Project for the drawing installation I will be showing in the summer show at George Billis Gallery LA in July. They are giving me a whole wall to install drawings and I am very excited to show a lot of work on paper.

Saturday the publishers from Chance Press came down from Oakland to show me some proofs for the upcoming book I am doing with them. We had a great time and the proofs and papers look amazing. This book is going to kick serious ass! I can’t wait until the first few are printed. There will be some available at my solo show in October.

Tomorrow is going to be a strange day. I am going to draw a bit to keep my mind busy. I don’t want to get too depressed. I’m a little afraid of that, yet I don’t want to totally avoid my feelings either. Needless to say, I’m not up for phone calls – and I know I haven’t been for quite a while. I’m so sorry about that by the way. Maybe I just needed a whole year to mourn them both. Maybe after June 1st is over, I will finally be better about getting back to people… oh who am I kidding? Have I ever been good at calling people back?

Dan en Negro
3.5 x 5.75 inches, Watercolor on very old book paper.

Well I just got back from a 10 day stint in Joshua Tree. I still don’t have all my bearings in place yet, but it was totally refreshing, interesting, wonderful, peaceful, productive, relaxing, invigorating, and zesty!

I had planned to do nothing but draw, but watercolors and gouaches came with me, and they take a little more time. the important thing is that I did art pretty much every day I was there if I wasn’t sleeping or staring at rocks. There were a lot of times we had to go looking for my dog too. He was roaming free and made a friend with a local female and they seemed to go away together a lot.

There was no television, no internet and my cell hardly worked. It was totally secluded and the property we rented was right up against the west entrance of the Joshua Tree National Park, so it was absolutely breathtaking.

I worked on a few things. Firstly, the art that is going into a bookwork I am doing with Chance Press. A lot of that is finished now, but I can’t show it before the book comes out. That will probably be winter 2010. The first part of my stay went into that project. You see, the house we rented had a main house, a separate writer’s studio for Michael, and a separate art studio for me. It could not have been more perfect. MJP is well on his way to finishing up his novel now. He devoted a lot of time to it there. I am so proud of him for what he got accomplished.

The rest of the time, I worked on large drawings that I am very happy with. I am finishing up the last one today and then I will take pictures. There are 3 of them. Two on Fabriano paper, and one on yellow handmade paper. The ones on the Fabriano are very important to me. After sketching and sketching, I had a wonderful breakthrough. I am very pleased with the ease of the creativity that came forth after that and went into these 2 large drawings. I feel like I’m finally onto something I’ve been after for a long, long time.

In other news, I have a new print available. No, not the new etching. That has yet to be editioned next week. This is a small 7 x 9 inch silkscreen I did as part of Margaret Garcia’s STAMP PROJECT/CREATING CULTURAL CURRENCY. The edition is 30 and they are all signed. I’m selling them right now for a mere $35.00 for if you’re interested, click here to find out more.