At ease

For the past week, I've been with family in the Sierra Nevada. I've been completely off the grid -- with limited phone and Internet access -- but will return to New York imminently. Until then, staring at some lovely detailed shots I took, like this closeup of a knob on the easel my great-grandfather used and passed on to my grandmother.

Color by key

Tyree Callahan's chromatic typewriter -- a hack where he replaced ink stores with paint -- is ingenious. The modified 1937 Underwood Standard typewriter is an entry in the 2012 West Collects West Prize Competition. I sometimes find, in writing, that words are insufficient for illuminating certain brilliant ambiguities; conversely, in painting, I wrestle with wanting to exercise as much control as I can in a well-crafted sentence, a taut paragraph. Perhaps this is an appropriate compromise?

Via Hi-Fructose.

Aimless painting

Sometimes, I paint. Not very well, of course, but I paint nonetheless. This is a little canvas, at a few different stages, that I worked on last weekend.