Turning Point

I was running low on art paper. Yesterday I dragged out the huge box under our bed, tossed aside the old drawings and paintings on top, and found my stockpile of paper has finally run out.

This might seem like a small thing, but listen to this-- I have been using the same huge pile of paper for almost 25 years. Since Reagan was president. Since Mike Tyson made his professional boxing debut. Since Coke came up with "New Coke". This paper was the Arches and other printmaking paper I bought, or rather overbought, when I was a student in the early 1980s. Coming from a printmaking background I'm very comfortable working with paper, and these works have always been so easy to stretch and store. But nothing drove me to painting on paper more than the fact that I had this seemingly inexhaustible supply lying around.

It's finally almost gone. Really, I'm sitting here wondering whether this is a transition for my art. As familiar as I am with paper, I've always hated matting and putting paintings under glass. This may finally be the time to move on.