Saturday’s the last day for my show at the Rainbo Club. It’s the second time I’ve shown the collages that’ve occupied much of my free time the last two years, but the first that felt right. It marks a new direction I plan to follow for awhile and thus seems more significant than some other shows I’ve had.

This is not to say that I’m disowning all the old work or plan to reuse and cut it all up (though now that I’ve typed that, it’s tempting.) For all the ways that it’s new, when I squint at it, the compositions are familiar. It’s like ripping up a deck of cards, then taping them back together and putting them back in their box. Still fifty-two cards, with all the same elements; just a little beat up with more seams showing.

When you do a thing for forty-plus years, it’s important to find ways to reset and renew it. The last thing any artist wants to do is repeat himself or go through the motions. That’s what the collage thing is for me: a way out of rote repetition.

People seem to like them, which is not necessarily a reason to keep going but doesn’t hurt. Talking about the collages is weird. They’re often made up of a lot of cut up autobiography. I wonder what a viewer that doesn’t get the references and doesn’t get answers when they ask the artist sees in them. Not that they are a puzzle that has one answer. That’s not how pictures work, at least as I see them or make them. A lot of times I’ve found artists’ explanations ruin my enjoyment or reaction. Art’s not for answers but for questions, I think. 

I’ll be at the Rainbo this Saturday (7/30/22) from 4 to 8pm to see the show out. Come by if you’re free.

—The printers tell me the new book should be ready sometime in September. Want one?

—Wednesday, my talk with Tom Shannon of the Cheater Slicks goes up. Before then you can listen to the one with Laura Park or a bunch of others. I’ve reposted most of the older ones now that got wiped out when I moved podcast hosts. I redid some of the descriptions and combined some of the pieces of audio. Hoping this can be their forever home but there’s no telling what I’ll get into my fool head week to week.

—Mallory and I talked about The Mist and reeled off a bunch of movies others like that we don’t.

—Listen to Ni un minuto más de dolor and you won’t be sad.