"There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual.... become clairvoyant. We reach then into reality. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom. It is in the nature of all people to have these expreiences; but in our time and under the conditions of our lives, it is only a rare few who are able to continue in the experience and find expression for it.
At such times, there is a song going on within us, a song to which we listen. It fills us with surprise. We marvel at it. We would continue to hear it. But few are capable of holding themselves in the state of listening to their own song. Intellectuality steps in and as the song within us is of the utmost sensitiveness, it retires in the presence of the cold, material intellect. It is aristocratic and will not associate itself with the commonplace... and we fall back and become our ordinary selves. Yet we live in the memory of these songs which in moments of intellectual inadvertance have been possible to us. They are the pinnacles of our experience and it is the desire to express these intimate sensations, this song from within, which motivates all masters of art." - Robert Henri, from The Art Spirit

Spent the morning Photoshopping images like the one above. This is a great week, as Kevin is out of town, and that means Radley and I can keep "single artist" hours, meaning great strides on the paintings. Then, at the end of the week, I am off to Chicago for the first time. It will be a short visit, as I cannot afford too much time away from my own paintings, but will be checking out the galleries, and finally, finally (if they are out) seeing a bunch of Ivan Albright paintings together. Ivan Albright is one of my oldest painting heroes. I have seen individual works, but never an exhibition, and the Art Institute is supposed to have a lot of them in their permanent collection.