Gentle Reader: Please forgive the narcissism that is laced throughout this post, however due to the nature of the subject matter, it could hardly be anything less.
Last year I left the DC area to live in New York, Brooklyn to be exact. This move was prompted during an upheaval of my personal life that, if I’m able to look back with clarity, I should have foreseen. These are the things of life. It is now considered a “learning experience”. I’m sure there are people who would have seen the whole thing as some kind of zen parable and shrugged it off with a statement about how the ninth “Ox Herding Picture*” illustrates this (it does – but my head was too far up my ass to see that clearly then).
I might seem a little bit out of sorts here – but that is really not the case. This year has been incredible in more ways than I can imagine. I’ve developed friendships and relationships with artists and people I honestly admire and have met people whom I though you would only meet in places I never go to. I have been fortunate to develop a relationship with a gallery here in Chelsea (Blank Space) as well as a beginning one in two other galleries – Susan Maasch in Portland, Maine and Susan Calloway Fine Arts in Washington DC. I’ll be having a solo show in DC late January.
Even though the blog has been a bit neglected, my art practice has not. Over the last twelve months I’ve made over 75 artworks – a few that I even like.
Footnote
For those interested, here is the text that accompanies the 9th Ox Herding Picture.
The Solitary Moon
Nowhere is the beast, and the oxherd is master of his time,
He is a solitary cloud wafting lightly along the mountain peaks;
Clapping his hands he sings joyfully in the moon-light,
But remember a last wall is still left barring his homeward walk.
Congrats Matthew. Here’s hoping we can meet up next time i’m in the city.