A long time ago, in 1997, I wanted to write better poetry. I would regularly get together after school with my friend Kevin Vincent. We would go to the grocery store and buy a few apples, and some limes. Then we�d go to my house, eat the apples, chew on the sour limes, and compare our poems.

My poems were always gaudy. Full of words I had found in a thesaurus, but didn�t really know the meanings of. I was trying to write poems that would change the world, and as a result they have all, mercifully, been lost forever. I was constantly trying too hard�it showed.

Meanwhile, Kevin�s poems seemed real, succinct, and important, without seeming like he was trying to compensate for something.

One of those days, as I was moaning on about my lack of skill, he told me that he had been to a writer�s camp that past summer, and there was a drill they taught him in which everyone wrote without caring about the results. Don�t write because you want to make something that will be perfect, just spend some time writing crap. It didn�t matter if they were terrible, just write. Hell, it could just be stream of consciousness. The point wasn�t to make a wonderful poem, the point was to unburden myself.

So I did. I didn�t quite fill up the notebook that week, but I did write a lot of poems, and they were awful. I made a bunch awful poems, but I also unburdened myself. I didn�t feel like I had to write perfect poetry any more.

Tonight, I realized my paintings are shackled by a similar burden. I know I�m not that good yet, and I�m trying really hard to be good. Every time I paint I�m somewhat burdened by the idea that I�ll share it here, and on Instagram and Reddit… and it adds a lot of pressure to the creative act. Suddenly, there�s some – I don�t know – pressure to make a painting that will get plenty of upvotes, likes, or thumbs ups.

So tonight, I just sat down and painted. I wasn�t thinking about Reddit or FB or IG, I was just thinking about the painting.

So tonight, I decided to try the same strategy with paintings. I won�t bother to comment on them, that�s not the point tonight. The point tonight is to try to simplify and unburden my paintings. My goal is to just paint.

Well, that�s it I guess.