Weight...

Weight   oil on canvas   48 x 36 x 1.5

the feeling of weight...is a fairly common human experience, I would think.  For the most part, I declare myself to be an optimist, but my days are full-up and sometimes it takes only one more tiny request to set my day into a tail-spin.  While more of us than not have overcome huge obstacles to get to where we want to be, it is, for me, a matter of perpetual shifting, sifting and sorting to keep my priorities in order. 

My current read is Supernormal by Meg Jay.  As it turns out, the most accurate predictor of those with grit, with determination and resilience, is LOVE... loving relationship(s) is what truly turns the tide...gets us over the hump.  My own personal hero is LeBron James, also an Akron-ite. 

This painting was 90% complete in the winter of 2016-17.  It was then propped against the wall and approached again this winter.  After years of trying to get portrait-perfect faces, I have been experimenting, for several years now,  with subduing the faces, in order to defer to the figure, or figures, in their gestural entities, for the purpose of more accurate story-telling.