Last week in April 2026

 Well, well, here we are, the last week of April, Saturday the 25th, and I did not post in March and have almost let this one of a dozen slip by without a word. 

There have been words, though, and I'll share some of them. There has been a three night camping jaunt, some fishing, some music, a great puzzle, gardening aplenty (or meadow-tending, as may more accurately been the case), significant amounts of planning for travel in July, grown children making lives, paint applied to canvas, and if there were a god I'd say god knows what else.

I made the painting below, and shared it at my scottmerrick.me website and in Second Life at the scottmerrickdotnet gallery. It's the largest I've so far completed, and that because I found a castaway canvas from art.com in one of the alleys my Lemon walks with me and drove back to fetch it. I picked up a fresh jar of white gesso at Michael's art supply store and slathered layer after layer on it to overpaint its mass produced image and ready it for painting, then I began throwing ideas and textures at it, knowing I would find images in the resulting mess. When I think of sculpture, in particular the sort that involves some carving, I often remember the description I read somewhere in my past about an artist bringing out the embedded life within a piece of wood or stone or clay. Most bronze work is created with casts made of carved other material, I do think, and so there you go with my criterion for this painting. 

At the end of it, when my senses said it was almost done, I saw three shapes that suggested candles, and my final act was painting three black shapes indicating wicks. Though I had intended to paint candle flames, I stopped just short of that, opting for the unfulfilled, the thing the viewer can add, completing the piece her or himself, or themselves. I call this, at 36"x48", "candlesinthemaelstrom". 

I spent some time a couple weeks ago at my favorite camping spot. For me, it's ideal, open, shady with hundred year old pecan trees, close to home, and riverside. It's at Lock-A, Cheatham Dam Campground, an Army Corps of Engineers getaway just the other side of Ashland City. That is all for now. Excepting: 

Take a look at my little Google Photos album of the 3 nights camping at Lock-A in Cheatham County.