Welcome to old friends and new connections – in particular, to all the people who came to my exhibition this Fall at the Visual Space Gallery. Thank you for coming!

Ships, Mountains & the Sea V: Thank you those who brought delicious fruit from their garden/desserts/quince jelly/wine/flowers. There was no reception, but there were several “come-see-Lyne” days, which were extremely popular, as was to be expected. Thank you, as well, to those farther away who could not come in person, but reviewed the show online.

My paintings in a museum: This October the American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) opened its newest year-long exhibition, Healing-and-the-Art-of-Compassion-(and-the-lack-thereof!), inspired by a conversation between the Dalai Lama and Curator-Founder Rebecca Alban Hoffberger. Three of my Angry White Men – Explorations of the Face of Evil series were included – three years after my Seattle exhibition of the works received an ugly trolling worthy of Cassandra, and ten months after the January 6th coup-attempt, an example of what I had been warning about. My wonderful friends Steve Bova and Eunchung Park live across the Baltimore inner harbor from AVAM – and toured the exhibition. Eunchung had this to say:

Yesterday we found your paintings hanging beside another artist’s depiction of an “evil” human – i.e. Hitler – a painting I initially found more striking in depicting evilness. This morning, I woke up in a contemplative state with your images in my head. I remembered the painting of Dylann Roof – the colors, the composition, and the blankness of his expression. Your work seems to have a lasting effect – inducing me to think about them afterwards, in contrast with the other artist’s painting that got my immediate attention but was not necessarily thought provoking. I wish you were at the museum to tell us what your vision was in painting them. (Quote slightly edited for length)

The long answer to Eunchung’s question is in this catalogue.

A worthy cause – Talent is everywhere; opportunity, unfortunately, is not. My artist-collective Gallery 110 is doing something about it – with an Emerging Artist Program (EAP) offering scholarship memberships in the Gallery which include a solo exhibition and mentorship in life as a professional artist. I am donating all proceeds from any of my works sold through Gallery 110 during December & January to the EAP. Please help by buying a painting as a nice “stocking stuffer”. Just email our Director, Shayley Timm (copy me, as well, so I can thank you, and follow-up). You can also DONATE HERE; any amount will help.

Please stay safe. Living in interesting times, indeed! Delta is still ripping through the unvaccinated, but Omikron is infecting everyone at an unprecedented rate. Borders that just reopened are snapping shut. Dread as to the degree of its threat overarches all. Covid travels on the air like cigarette smoke. Please stay safe (KN95-masked indoors, small bubble, eschew large gatherings, get boostered) and remain constantly vigilant. Let’s hope we get no more Greek letters added to our everyday vocabulary.

Holiday Greetings. I hope this short missive finds you all safe and warm, in good health and spirits; with great affection and respect, David