In the early 1990s, I started experimenting with painting more personalized subject matter and doing this with a somewhat “looser” technique.  The paintings that came out of this period were highly personal expressions of my own emotional and spiritual feelings. 

Each one of them had a specific reference to a certain personal set of feelings I was having at the time.  I found it invigorating to be able to process my feelings with my art.  Why hadn’t I done this before? Suddenly I felt like a “real” artist accessing deep emotions and feeling free enough to experiment with brushstroke changes, breaking away from my usual literal depictions of objects, people and landscape features.

What also came about with painting these types of allegorical, personal works, was a sense of “exposure.” Did I really want to reveal some of my deep, personal feelings?  Isn’t that what artists are supposed to do?  As I exhibited these works in various shows my trepidation grew and I partially withdrew in fear.

After that episode, I went back to painting “regular” (but beautiful) paintings.  But now, currently, I have been losing my fear of exposure as I have been living more authentically as the person I feel I am.  I want to start exploring this personal expression aspect in my art again. Let’s see what happens.