Decided to just bite the bullet and knock out some spray painted canvases. I thought of every reason not to. Then decided that I really need to keep producing work no matter what. Aerosol seems too easy to be a real artform. Mindless echo for mindless times but that is worthwhile as soon everyone will be on board. Big companies like Liquitex have been making acrylic aerosols for years. The initial problem with any artform is space. I am willing to sacrifice space and just put these monstrosities into anything I can. The biggest will be 40x40inch which isn’t too big. I bought a selection of aerosol acrylics. There are quite a few on the market now.

What has inspired me is recently I started putting my aerosol wall photos in albums. I got a jumbo album and put my best work from the past in it. What got me was there was such little quality work to put in. There isn’t a lot there that I managed to keep photos of. But they are key artworks, nonetheless. There isn’t enough. I need to stop putting on the brakes. It is important for me to keep producing unique works in any way I can. The past five years have been good. I have collaborated on some good walls. There is more quality work in the past five years than from any other period combined. I can’t drop the ball. I need to keep drawing and keep producing so in the next five years there is more than enough work to be taken seriously as an artist. I need to keep the consistency I always keep ditching. With canvas work the same problem persists. Lack of work.

I am not saying I need to just knock out any old crap to get numbers but I need to develop my wall work with the canvas work so there is something there. Otherwise the last thirty years will be in vain. I also need to write and stay creative. I made a couple of quick canvases recently and they were more concept pieces than masterpieces. Yet it is good to keep the show on the road. With writing, I felt that was a better way to go but I can’t ignore my visual art because who is to say that won’t meet the same fate. I have been making things here and there, especially on paper, for example my plein air landscapes which once again I never really fully developed. My aerosol work is more developed overall than my other visual work because it has always been there. Also when I look back on the next five years I want to see quality work. 

It doesn’t have to be perfect but it needs to make a full picture of an effort. A lot of work that I made was pure graffiti, a kind of empty numbers game full of more ego than substance. Then there were small efforts to pull myself out of that game. Now I am well and truly out of that game and I want to keep exploring my creative potential. All of those works from the past, those few were paving the way for an artistic journey. The past five years have also touched on that. Now I must keep things rolling along. The journey has not ended. In a way it has only just begun.