Beginning With The End In Mind

Herbie Hancock, on my favorite single, "Rock It", will be the 5th piece for this year's Vinyl Killers show at The Goodfoot in Portland, Oregon. Since Jason used my Tom Waits for the poster, I wanted my pieces to be really good this year. The others are the Thom Yorke, Frank Zappa, Jay-Z and Michael Jackson I painted recently. I like the black on the label on these.

I really like how my paintings are turning out these days. Not that I didn't like them before, but they seem to be better. To me anyway.

I do basically start each piece with the end in mind. I mean, I have the image already. In a broad sense I am simply replicating the original photograph. I'm not insecure about that fact anymore, as I've recognized the value I add, I put into the piece, but it is true. All I really try to do is make the painting look like the photo.

It's all dots and dabs of white paint. That's all it is. I look at where the white is in the photograph and put it on the record. I'm not even really thinking about the fact that it's a face while I'm painting. Then, in the end, voila! It's kind of fun to see it develop, which you can do here.

My painting can be a metaphor for Life, if you like that sort of metaphysical philosophical thing. Which I do. In Life, if you have a dream, a goal, a picture in your head of how something will look when you get to where you want, you have a much better chance of getting there. Sounds kind of obvious when you think about it. People don't get what they want usually because they don't know what they want!

This has been on my mind a lot with the course I'm on, so I'll ask the question again, "What do you really want?"

I'm asking you.

Peace.