I forgot my keys to the studio and no one was around, so here I am. Do you think this has happened to the huge artists through out history? Can you imagine Da Vinci having a fit not being able to get into his own atelier? That be a hilarious in my opinion, but knowing him he’d do some renaissance Batman maneuver by entering through a trap door or use a go-go gadget belt.

I was going to write a long post before the year ended about 2020, but I think we all had enough of that noise. Honestly, I don’t want to get into it considering how rough it was for everyone. We’re all going to have to work on ourselves to process everything that happened and is still going on. A more personal reason I wasn’t writing or painting was because I had to take some time off.

Trump lost. Trump fucking lost. God, is that a relief for so many people. There’s still a lot of work to do and we can’t lose sight of that. At least we have that bit of good news in the god awful year that’s 2020. I’d kick myself in the ass and say that I’m really behind on writing posts on here, but not much is happening. We’re back in lockdown obviously. There’s not a lot I can rant on regarding my couch and tight living situation.

So here I am writing because I’m not in the mood to paint yellow pants right now. Honestly, that’s all thats going through my mind and I know I’ll get it done. Now the question is what I want to ramble about in my 200-300 word window. There’s the news, but I think I say it for the majority of us that it’s the wildest season of reality we’re watching.

My Lord, has it be a while since I’ve slapped away at my keyboard on here. It really seems the world is on fire at the moment from Covid-19 all the way to Black Lives Matter. If you’re not upset, you haven’t been paying attention. To everyone who has been showing up at protests, spreading information and resources, and taking positive initiatives, I’m beyond proud of all of you. Change is happening, but there’s still lots of work to be done. How wonderful that people want to change names of streets, but the system needs to be changed.

I have no idea how you guys feel, but I’ll never risk the health of others or my own by joining a protest because I want a haircut. Just because you’re bored of quarantine doesn’t mean it’s all over. Seriously, stay home. Stay the fuck home. It’s a pain in the ass and it’s not easy. We’re living in a very bizarre state where part of us are terrified and the other part is relaxed at the same time. However you’re feeling right now, I hope you and your loved ones are doing alright.

Let’s get right to the point and ask how are the extroverts doing? I know it’s all of you crashing that House Party app every single night. Self reflection and not sharing an opinion in the physical presence of another human every nanosecond is tough, so I’m sending you all my thoughts and prayers. I do hope everyone is taking this time to rest and enjoy some forgotten joys in life.

Shout out to everyone in quarantine. To all the people who thought working at home was easy, all I have to say is “Welcome to Thunder Dome” No really, it takes some time to adjust, but you get the hang of it. I do hope all of you are being safe and responsible. If you’re sick, stay in bed, drink all the liquids, and break that fever. You can do it. As a painter who is isolated and stays indoors very long periods of time, I can’t say I’m feeling a lifestyle switch.

It’s been a very rough month emotionally if I’m going to be honest. My smallest life companion passed away and I can’t say I’ve kept it together well. All the emotions of sadness, loneliness, and fear have crashed over me in waves. Saying goodbye to your little critter hurts. She’s family. Thats the bottom line. It sucks.

Happy New Year and 2019 can finally be thrown away in the trash. I fall into the category of people who survived the year. If you made it through, I’m proud of you. We don’t need to talk about the holidays if you don’t want to. This wasn’t an easy go, but look at us. We’re here.

The whole 2pm is the new 10 pm due to it being November has been taking a toll on us all. Already I have a hard time believing in time as something that exists, let alone being in darkness in the middle of the day because seasons. I feel my work is reflecting the whole ordeal in regards to subject matter. I’ve been pushing my religious series a lot further with the cover of darkness. There’s always been this weird feeling of working on them in daylight.

I’d like to begin by saying I’m incredibly impressed with myself for never writing a rant in full caps-lock on this blog. Thats a very big deal for me especially if you’ve ever met me in person. Anyways, I’m back in Paris and conference season is over. Life is resuming to what it usually is at this moment in time.

It’s conference season and that means being ridiculously uncomfortable watching myself babble on screen about life. I literally can’t sit still in front of the computer looking at myself talk. Strange for the guy who can continues to paint himself over and over again. L’ADA is back for round 2 in Bretagne and I’m excited to shove my knowledge of stuff and things down people’s brain holes.

It’s been a long minute since I’ve posted anything, so hello again.  There’s been a lot of on going changes happening in my life since June and I feel I’m ready to finally write about it properly. Oh don’t worry, it’s nothing traumatic. It’s change. One thing I can tell you about change is that regardless of it being planned or not, it takes you by surprise. It’s always complicated to go through.

I’m officially a TedX speaker. It’s done. It’s in the bag. I’m part of the Ted Talk roster. After being on stage speaking to mass amounts of people, I have to say I enjoy it. A huge thank you to everyone who was involved along with all of those who came out to the event. Everyone’s been emailing me for the link, but you’ll get it when I get it.

I think we all saw the image of this post coming (no pun intended) when it came to the number. At least on my website there aren’t any restrictions because it’s my goddamn page on the matrix. Speaking of God, I do want to take time going into the thoughts concerning Notre Dame. It was a mishap regarding renovations or at least that’s my understanding of why it was on fire. I feel mainstream media from the west would like to say otherwise so it fits a very terrifying narrative.

March has been an interesting month, but I haven’t bought into all the madness. It’s official that I’ll be giving a Ted Talk at the end of May here in Paris about art and mental health. I’d like to say I’m very good at improv, but the challenge is getting the point across properly within 15 minutes while not sounding like a stale piece of white toast. Art talks in general have always had the ability to put me to sleep.

Another portrait and another goodbye. Max is finally finished and it’s been a hell of an experience. Despite the painting moving from my easel to the wall, it’s still a farewell. One thing I won’t miss is furiously squeezing red paint out the tube every single day. I learnt a lot more about warmer colours than I ever did in school while working on this project. Yellow without a doubt is the colour that demands the most patience.

While trying to start this post I got lost on Google trying to figure out why we celebrate the new year on the 1st of January. Long story short, it seems that if you’re a Roman emperor you can do whatever you want and that includes dictating time. These guys were clearly not politicians, but creative people in power. If I were running things back in the day, my reign would be purely defined by shenanigans.

Christmas is a strange time of year. No, this is not a post where I’m going to turn into The Grinch. I feel very much in my own world because if it wasn’t for all the decorations around town, I wouldn’t even realize what month it is. French people aren’t carolling but we have riots though. That balances everything out.