Meet me in Auvers sur Oise: Vincent's Room (a destroyed journal. The above two pages are all that survive. I took what I had done apart and repurposed it, saving what you see here.) Why did I take the journal apart? It was at the time of George Floyd's murder, Black Lives Matter, and uprisings in cities across the world. I had originally wanted this very large journal (the largest thing I've ever worked on) to focus on my day in Auvers sur Oise in 2019 but I put that project aside for now.

 

Looking back at 2020, it was a year where I focused on quality instead of quantity. Looking at the above, it doesn't look like I got much done but I worked every single day. I destroyed a lot of work. I also layered and layered and layered again over many of the above pages. 

In a truly terrible year, in a macabre twist, it was also an extremely productive year. It had to be, for me. Painting is what made me get out of bed and walk away from my phone. Painting kept me focused on things beyond covid-19 and not being able to teach my usual in person workshops. Painting kept me alive and not curled up in a ball.

Studying the master painters also kept me going. If I wasn't painting, I was reading art books. (I will do a follow-up post on my favorite books as well as the artists whose work I immersed myself in.)

What's above you ask? 

Three completed journals. Click the links, you can see each journal in-depth:

My Painted Life: 24 December 2019 - 8 June 2020 Journal

  

Individual pieces done in June. The originals were sent out as thank you's. I really loved this project and plan on doing more of these in the coming year. 

 

Meet me in Auvers sur Oise: Vincent's Room (a destroyed journal. The above two pages are all that survive. I took what I had done apart and repurposed it, saving what you see here.) Why did I take the journal apart? It was at the time of George Floyd's murder, Black Lives Matter, and uprisings in cities across the world. I had originally wanted this very large journal (the largest thing I've ever worked on) to focus on my day in Auvers sur Oise in 2019 but I put that project aside for now.

1 August - 15 September 2020 

This was my first journal without any collage, in a very, very long time. I told folks that I was going "back to my roots" (painting in the early 2000's) but this was different. I was looking at the work of Arshile Gorky. The cover and the first page are somewhat representational, after that, I dove head first into color, shape and exploring paint. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done but I loved every minute of it.

Why no collage? With everything going on (in a nutshell, people not caring about the health of their fellow humans), I didn't want to use collage. I couldn't find images that related to how I felt or what was happening in the world. I also wanted to try something new and different.

 

19 September - December 30, 2020 

In September, I started to add more information to my posts regarding the materials I used, the size of the work, as well as what I was reading, studying, listening to, watching, etc... I will continue to do this with future work. 

I've already begun my journal for 2021 and I've been sharing sneak peeks at the cover over on Instagram. 

I hope that this inspires you to reach for your paint brush, scissors, pencil or whatever you have access to. Here's to more creative endeavors in the coming year. Here's to a better year. Stay well.