I’ve been thinking a lot lately about ways to adjust my concepts of social painting. The best approach I can come-up with is a slight redefinition of style. Though my work is continuously evolving, I believe it may be time to skew my perspective – literally.

As my family returns to work and school, this week, I believe it may be time to experiment with a series of solely aerial perspectives. Imagine works such as “Hutterite Monopoly” or "Cervantes: Every Man is the Son of His Own Works" from above. An omniscient approach to painting, as in writing; now let’s take it a step further and integrate my westernized sumi-e style with basic illusionary concepts of European trompe l’oeil and I may have a new stylistic approach on my hands. Trompe L’Oeil is a French art term, literally meaning “fool the eye”. The term describes a deceptive realist painter’s technique (very often utilized by muralists). Click here to read more about it.

I now have two solo shows scheduled this spring, one this summer and two more in the fall. This is actually the first year that I’ve never had a group exhibition on the calendar. Though I should be just mindlessly painting to fill my quotas, I can’t work that way. Despite my high annual production numbers, I occasionally find time to stop work for a week or two every few months, just to reflect on the creations and remain discriminative regarding the direction of the overall body of work. The down time often becomes rather dark, I have trouble not painting. To deny myself the process of creation is slightly masochistic, but I always reemerge on the other side, a more focused artist because of the brief hiatus to reevaluate the work. This "lost space" is where I have been living for about two to three weeks, now. There will be more new work to come in the next two weeks, watch for some changes. - DN