Sketching at the Academy (California Academy of Science) with my five year old. This was so fun. There was so much movement that he actually focused on his own sketchbook for long enough for me to get one in. Usually, he's done by the time I put the clips on my book! The Academy and all museums are closed again with SF preemptively joining the rest of the state in the extended stay at home order this past Sunday 12/6/2020. Grateful we got to go several times while it was open.
This oil painting was , for me, an explosion of a new freedom I found after finally getting a home nearly 40 years ago, a room with a sink and a bed and a window. I hadn't painted for years, and never without extreme self-consciousness. But years of homelessness changed me and my appreciation of "art". That freedom eludes me these days, that 'ignorant' notion that I can do whatever comes to me. I'd love to get it back. Surely it's in us all. It may be better to paint to be satisfied than to paint to satisfy...
