The Real Thing

Day Two, Downtown Lansing Exhibit

Feb 25, 2026

She came and said:

“Wow, these are so much better than the photos you sent to me.”

That’s the thing right?

A wonderful aunt of my wife came to visit me yesterday. She’s a kitchen designer and overall style dynamo who is extremely giving with her love and expertise. She reminded me of the important principle above, regarding my current exhibition.

I had asked to her to visit and help me make the exhibit more coherent. I was struggling making selections of which should hang where.

Selling art online is one thing. But you cannot feel the art. The texture is warped or smoothed over by the digital process. You cannot grasp the context of the painting, the hands that made it, or the innate humanity and spirituality of the completed work.

It seems that pretty pictures are an intellectual process when viewing on Facebook or Instagram. Just something to take in. Something of a suggestion of a workman. It’s probably true for anything...you can see a new patio on a beautiful home, but you can’t feel the new pavers under your feet, you can’t smell the wieners on the Q, you cannot feel the commonality of the folks enjoying a perfect day in the sun.

At the same time...all art is an abstraction. Literal, photorealistic and detailed portraits are still an interpretation of the artist and his tools. A hyper realistic picture of Mona Lisa doest not give you a feel for who she was. It is a famous portrait because it makes you think you know…

The only art that serves my spirit is true abstraction because it does not use reference, it does not allude to another thing to show you something you may already know. It eliminates the extra variable of ‘knowing’ or trying to know.

To view my work, you must stand in front of it, first far away, and then close up and shut off your mind. Go dark except for the image that rolling in. Don’t try to attach meaning or shapes to it too soon. Allow the inputs to come in and collect in your brain.

Let it tell you what it wants to say. Let it tell you a story…take you on a trip…let it pour cool water over your anxiety.

Why does this work? It works because looking at my work in this manner is inversely proportional to how I painted it. I have let it tell me what do do next, where to go and when it is completed.

There is one last little secret:

Sometimes you love it or hate it for absolutely no reason at all.

I hate that color.

That would be dope over our couch.

It is legitimate to gauge my work as a spiritual experience AND/OR as a piece of furniture that matches your style.

I’m here to sell them baby. Simple Capitalism.

To understand them, to feel them, you must see them in person.

I’m ready to have you!