This was one of those paintings where the first half was so good that it scared me a little bit and the painting sat half finished on the work table for a couple weeks because I knew it was good and wasn't sure how to finish it. It was that series of bold red paint smears in the middle layers that did it. They were just so cool and imposing when they were on the surface, I wasn't sure for a while that anything should go on top of them.

Once I pulled the trigger and executed the remainder of the painting I was happy with the results. There is a still a boldness in those red stripes, but it is a little more distant, you have to work a little bit to get there.

This painting kind of got to a strange place. It goes places my paintings don't always go. There is a new tension here, between fiddly neatness and artistic-crisis-boldness (those wide red streaks) and let-it-go chill straightforwardness. This has been hanging on my studio wall unfinished for several months now and I have been going back to it again and again as a reference. It's got a cohesive discomfort to it that keeps me going back to look again.