(AUG 25, 2021)   A recent trip out of state reminded me I live in the right place and all other places are merely stopovers on my journey back home.   

    (MAY 16, 2021)    Two of my graphite drawings - left, First Black Banana (2021) and right, Cancel Banana (2021) - are being exhibited at Melrose Bay Art Gallery, Melrose, Florida through June 27.
    This is an invitational group exhibition of some 30 area artists breaking out of the quarantine months.
    The COVID pandemic has made photo materials - film, paper, and some chemistry - difficult to find and when available are pricey. My darkroom stock is low but I have enough goods to carry through the production-supply lag as fresh light sensitive materials resume availability. Working with other media has been the logical alternative and I regularly work with graphite anyway.                                                 One person seemed troubled over my two images. She said, "They don't look like graphite drawings." 
    What are graphite drawings supposed to look like? 

    Melrose Bay Art Gallery is an 'art collective' with a fluctuating membership of 12-18 or so artists working with mostly traditional media and focused passions. These are good people - mostly locals - who enjoy living in the peaceful, rural detachment from urban noise and distractions. The nearest art gallery alternatives for local artists and crafts people (the Melrose-Keystone Heights-Hawthorne, FL group) are 25+ miles away. 
    I am not a gallery member and prefer it that way since I do not play well with other artists. It has a lot to do with ego, a maturity short on patience, and my competitive nature for wall space and sales. I'm not sure if artists are the most interesting people to hang out with anyway.