2023: Wretched Excess & Ambiguity

Most years have included some wretched excess and ambiguity, but this year wins the prize. About wretched excess, late last year I was not able to resist a great package price on 40 smallish 16 × 20” canvases. I ordered another 40 this year.

It has, in a way, prodded me to explore old themes more fully. And, in the process, teach an old painter a few new things about painting. Included are a few of these among the selected works of 2023.

As to ambiguity, it has always been, at least, at the edges of my work… and this year, more center stage.

“Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’

‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’” ― Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll