Some Notes on My Methods

I am finding myself doing more and more of my painting away from the studio. I do more thinking (is thinking the word?) then actually painting each piece. I lay in bed, sometimes for hours, going over the current painting in my "mind's eye". Now this would sound like it would make my work very well plotted but it has had the opposite effect and I am becoming looser and more abstract. I know that the work can only really happen in front of the canvas but somehow my "twilight painting" opens me up with a notion that finds itself in a less conscious part of my brain. When I approach the easel I do and don't know what will happen and I can paint a lot in a few hours and then I must stop.


I am also spending a lot of time dreaming; more then I ever have. I really pay attention not because I think they are prophetic but because they cause certain creative impulses in me. There are recurring themes -like I can never make a phone call; I keep looking for a phone and if I find one I over and over mess up the number I am trying to call. I have many other dreams of things I can not complete or communicate. I have lately had dreams that I know are dreams but I decide not to wake up and realizing I am dreaming gives me more power in the dream. I have also had dreams where I am dreaming within the dream; I wake up and realize I am still dreaming. I dream in color because I have seen several plane crashes and house fires. But my most important dream is when I see a painting and I try to get as close as possible and try to remember it for when I am awake. I have included fragments that I have retained in some of my work. My dream life has become very valuable to me for reasons I don't completely understand.