The Fall Ahead
(1st Painting completed in Lake Ann studio)
Acrylic, mixed media on canvas – 30 x 96 inches
October 2025
The Fall Ahead marks the first Painting I completed in my Lake Ann, Michigan studio—a transformed garage makeover—and it carries the charge of that new beginning. What started as a summer painting gradually shifted toward autumn, gathering autumnal warmth, texture, and a sense of seasonal change as the panels developed. By the time I started the final panel, the work had revealed its direction: a composition rooted in transition, resourcefulness, and the urgency of completing a strong painting before the cold closed in on the studio. The third panel incorporates actual garage sweepings, scattered across the surface and sealed with gel medium, turning the studio’s residue into part of the Painting’s physical history. Alongside these traces are familiar elements from the series—my iconographic “breaking ice” or blue trapezoid panel, and dried paint circles formed from recycled yogurt containers—which come together to create a layered, tactile composition. Rather than announcing a completely new direction, The Fall Ahead deepens and solidifies my process, bringing color, material experimentation, and completion into sharper focus as I begin this new studio chapter. More pictures of the studio and surroundings will be forthcoming.