I was supposed to go to Bakersfield today, but the trip was canceled at the last minute. I’ll have to go on a different day. Oh well. 

I was going out there to see my friend Rochelle Botello‘s solo show at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. It’s called Free Fall, and I am very excited to see it. Luckily, it will be showing until September 7th, so I have time. The plan is to drive out there with Rochelle and make a whole day of it. It will be fun, as we will blab non-stop for hours about art, and nobody can stop us! Ha ha! 

The last couple of weeks I’ve been simultaneously working on all my projects, but it feels like nothing is getting done. That’s not true, though. Things are moving along—a little on this, a little on that—and my to-do list is slowly gaining those little check marks I anally use next to each item on my list. 

Recently, I ordered a couple of new little birch panels. I thought I had some 12-inch squares here, but I can’t find them now. I decided to paint a couple of sloppy portraits on them to tie in this painting: I’m Here for the Party.

The show is coming together as I’m playing with the gallery layout. It’s easy to plan things out this way, plus the gallery gave me an Exel file to add all the pieces going into the show. It’s nice to have a visual like this.

I’ll have roughly ten new pieces made, not including six of the eight little watercolors I’m using, plus a few never-before-exhibited ones. Then, there’s the Medicine Dan book, too. I’m going to have a few more books besides. It’s looking like there’s going to be close to thirty-eight items in total. That seems like a lot, doesn’t it? It is. Basically, I’ll bring it all, and then we can edit out what’s necessary. 

There are only two or three “bigger” pieces, and the rest are pretty small. I mean “bigger” for me, anyway. I don’t typically make giant paintings, and I don’t particularly like making them. The biggest I’m into would be about fifty inches. I don’t mind making a couple of larger-ish pieces and putting them together though. That’s kind of fun. I have a painting that’s three 48 x 36-inch canvases that I put together to make one 48 x 108-sized painting. That is probably the biggest one I’ve done, but this is not going into the show.

The two big ones in the show are 40 x 60 inches, and one is 48 x 48 inches that I’m still working on. Then there’s the embroidery installation that will take up most of an 11-foot wall and another sewn piece that’s 30 x 40 inches. Everything else ranges from about 6 inches square to 30 inches or so. Nothing too overwhelming. This is an older one, Machine, and it will be in the show (40 x 60 inches):

Right now, I’ve been working on two little ones: a 12 x 9-inch gesso board and a 14 x 11-inch raw linen one. Well, I’m kinda waiting for parts of those to dry. Otherwise, it’s a pain in the ass to apply more paint because of where I placed the colors I mixed in the first place. Ya gotta love oil paint, right?  

I’ll probably end up taking all the watercolors to the local frame shop to see if they can frame them for a decent price. I don’t need them floated, just matted. It’s a simple job. I think I can trust they can handle that. If not, I will have to do them myself. Yuck!