I'm sorry to say that the last two unfinished works will remain that way. I worked with them some more but the images went stale. I considered taking the pictures off of the page ... but I've decided to keep them up and write about why the pieces didn't work.

In both cases, I had planned on or had already used images of the bug. They were different images than the blurry version that was used in the two completed pieces that are on the page (Visitor No. 1 and Visitor No. 3). When I attempted to use the clearer pictures, I found the image to be so inflexible and lacking in movement that it just killed the composition of the picture no matter what I did to it. The beginning of Visitor No. 2, which is on the page, clearly shows what would become the ultimate problem. The two bugs with the female heads just pulled energy out of the picture and looked tacked on. (Of course, they were "tacked on," as were the blurry pictures, but the blurry ones had a way of avoiding that fake look.)

So, I've moved on new projects.

This one was recently completed:



I call it "Marked."

Again, I am adding to the canvas. In this case, the arm was literally cut out of another piece that had also gone stale. Both the arm and canvas are stitched through.















The imagery is very heavy-handed, which, as I've written about before, I like to avoid. If it isn't clear what it's about, I won't say. I'll only say this: It isn't about me. It was hard to watch. It was harder to understand. It pissed me off.

I was unsure about the target and the colors. I didn't want it to appear that I was trivializing the subject matter, rather, I wanted to