During the late 1990s and early 2000s I found myself combining paintings that may have been done at different times, sometimes with very different intentions in mind. The resulting diptychs and triptychs make for an odd viewing experience: What are these two doing together? Apart from combining images that were neatly the same size, the process was not logical. There was a lot of trial and error, of the sort that cooks are familiar with; it's a matter of tasting as you go. I still like to work with images when I'm painting. Literal references are loaded with flexible associations of all kinds, triggering responses that depend on the circumstances. The two images here - one of a flea market pitcher and hand, the other of what appears to be a lake (it is actually based on a photo taken of a highway during a thunderstorm deluge) are joined in a kind of matrimony, just like most couples we all know. You sometimes wonder what the initial attraction was but here they are years later having settled together into crusty elegance.

New Moon ~ January 23, 2012