When I look at my paintings from one year to the next, I see that the family is still the same.  They’ve just grown wiser, older, more complex, smarter, better teachers, more mysterious in ways and more open in other ways.

The review by me is a self-examination.  Am I going forward or backwards?

The static nature of paint on canvas and how it is accomodating it is to itself at the time that it is theoretically finished—that’s just the beginning of the interpretation.

Obviously, people are changing constantly.  The universe keeps moving all the time.  If we don’t move with it, we’re being left behind.  That’s why I have to look at it really from my own discovery, to see if I’m going forwards.

Are there new ways of looking at supposedly the same old manipulation of paint, the nuances of the characters, the development of the style, the mixture of the colors?  Have they become old and redundant?  Is the process a reproduction machine?  Or is it a great magnifying glass that I’m using to look into the wonders of the microscopic world that I’ve never seen before?

These are all personal challenges that give me my report card.I am still old of body but young of spirit.  I am still a risk-taker.  I am still very limited in my knowledge and learning.

I find the review not only challenging, but scary.  I love it.

Matt