Day 8

Sometimes you just have to go with your gut on things. Sometimes you have to really think about what you're doing before you do it. But sometimes -- and that's why I like to paint -- you can destroy what you've done before and create something new at the same time.

I highly recommend painting on unstretched canvases that are larger than yourself. It lets you work on the floor, get lost in your work, and also you can move the canvas around and fold it on itself and dance all over it. Much easier. And more fun.

This documentation is getting very interesting for me. Mostly, I don't think I'd be able to remember all the various stages that this painting has been in. I almost forgot about the writing. And the handprints! Oh how I miss those. (Not really, but they're in there).

I highly recommend leaving the confines of your daily life frequently and travel, whether it be across the Bay Bridge to Oakland or snowboarding on a beautiful mountain underneath the Grand Tetons or even just walking with headphones on through a construction site. Then, if you have the chance, see friends and retire to a basement where you can blast Tom Waits talking stupid about pork chops beating up cups of coffee.

Wow, there's really no way to see what this painting looks like, is there?

So, back to what's been going on. Those 95 boxes I mentioned in the day before--they showed up in two beautiful brown boxes! I've now glued 80 of the panels to 80 plastic boxes. I've completed 96 panels, waiting for the last three to dry. I need to varnish about 25 of them still, but the end is growing near. Now if I could just finish the main painting.

Randy Antin

Go back, or go forward, or start over.