In The Garden

This painting was composed from scratch. Literally. I started smearing paint around with no preconcieved notion as to what I was doing and after 400 hours I had this. The photograph has eliminated most of the texture and is no comparison to seeing it in person. This was sold to my friend K in 1997 for far too little and is possibly the most finished piece I have made. K keeps it behind his bookshelf because he says it scares him. Whatever. I'm going to buy it back. I have one painting in the works that will double the stakes with over 800 hours, thicker paint, and far more intensity. It's the one called Doug's Painting, which was started before this one, and is the one about which professor Donald Kunz told me "It's like you're trying to play all the instruments at once." In The Garden was started directly after that and finished 3 years later. If I've ever made a painting that was touching something new, this is the one.