Talent?

The subject of talent has often come up by people that visit me at my studio. Occasionally they tell me how talented I am. "What God given talent you have", they say. It's like going into someones home and telling a mother how well God raised her children and give no credit at all to the mother. When I bring up this fact, I get a response similar to what you sometimes get when you say you are against the war. Many instantly believe you are anti-American, unpatriotic, aiding the enemy by stating such a thing, etc. In the same way when take some credit for all the work I've created (probably 10,000 plus paintings, drawings, and sketches) I am branded as being anti-God.
I've come to the conclusion that it's not the business for anyone to assign credit to you or to God. Appreciate the work and leave it at that. They should keep silent on the matter of allocating credit. I'll give credit to God to whom I believe and love but don't come into my home and imply that all this hard work wasn't really hard work and dedication at all but that it is all a gift. It isn't. It requires decades of dedication and hard labor. If I have any gift from God (which I have many) it is a gift to not quit.

Missing colors?

I woman came in my studio today and asked if I saw color. She had spent time in Sedona and told me she had learned to see colors and wondered if I saw colors. She said it changed her life. She was speaking about auras. Well, I'm not sure I see colors around things but I certainly see and am acutely atuned to color. Why is it people feel the need to add to the abundance that is already there? Is there something missing in reality?

Vacation?

I have never been on a vacation and gotten away from my job. Never. It's not that I am taking care of business in the normal sense with phone calls and such. I care very little for that. The fact is that everywhere I go and am confronted with colors, shapes, lights and darks, and compositions that I constantly study and analyze. It's like a curse. I can never relax from involving myself with the light. I'm constantly squinting my eyes to see the big patterns, picking up on a reflected color from one object to another. They are there for everyone to see but for some reason I don't think most people see them as I do or at least do not involve themselves with it.
I feel like I have to make a record of magnificent ever changing beauty. Of course, no one cares for the most part but I'm compelled in this work of observation. It may be a bit silly but in other ways it's what creation and the Creator has put here for me to see. I appreciate every element of this light and shadow play so much. I feel I have to express my appreciation for it all in what I do weather it be in paint on canvas or through video.

Copies anyone?

I have been painting all my life and making a living since I was twenty with the creation of colorful brush marks on canvas. But things have changed. I think the profession of being a fine artist is going the way of the old sign painter.
In general people don't make a distinction between original and copy anymore. Reproductions have become so good that it's hard for even a trained eye to tell the difference, so why should anyone be interested in original art? It's a problem that more artists are finding out.