The Only Thing That Matters

When I studied with [D], 

he’d offer close critiques of what I’d written 

and then put my story aside and say, 

“But I might be wrong. 

And it really doesn’t matter. 

The only thing that matters 

is that you write your ass off.”

—Brian Morton, Tasha: A Son’s Memoir

And so it is with any creative pursuit, I think.

Even having come to understand that learning to paint happens by painting, and that the more I paint the more I learn, I can never get enough reminders and encouragement to just paint 'my ass off.'

Blue Skies for Days
3 x 3"; acrylic and collage on watercolor paper
abstract design
2023

Now You See It, Now You Don't

On my nightstand:

Cape Cod is a place

where buried things

surface and disappear again:

wooden lobster pots,

the vertebrae of humpback whales,

chunks of frosted sea glass.

One day there’s nothing; the next

the cyclical forces of nature—

erosion, wind, and tide—

unearth something 

that has been there all along.

A day later, it’s gone.

—Adrienne Brodeur, Wild Game

On my easel:

What has been there all along?

What is gone?

Where's the ebb?

The flow?

Nautical Nod
3 x 3"; acrylic and collage on watercolor paper
abstract design
2023