If only I had a pyre, a phoenix would emerge.

It's always interesting when people and things from your past never fail to show up unexpectedly. I try to keep in mind that life is cyclical and that it overlaps constantly. Sometimes, it seems, there are lessons that need to be learned and if they are not learned the first time, they will come up time and time again.

Without being too specific, this has more or less happened to me recently. However, I think in the past, I would have been a lot happier to bury it all and then dust myself off before walking away. Some of the past circumstances and people that have seemingly shown up on my doorstep, I welcome, because it means that I can move on.

Art and reading have been my versions of escapism recently.

I just completed Julie Klausner's I Don't Care About Your Band: What I Learned from Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Faux Sensitive Hipsters, Felons, and Other Guys I've Dated. To say I can relate is a bit of an understatement and correlates a bit with my current issues of people from my past coming back to haunt me. I was reminded of how the stupid things I've done merely make me human.

In the art realm, the new Andy Warhol: The Last Decade exhibition at The Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth is well worth the visit. It depicts Warhol's later work and his collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente. What is so amazing about the exhibition is seeing how mature and unified Warhol's work became in his post-pop art years. There are lots of eye candy, color-wise, as Warhol was never known to shun color. However, the muted rorschach pieces are larger than life and have a spooky "is that painting watching me?" quality as you pass them.

With my own artwork, I'm still working on the same piece as before, not concerned about its slow progress. I ended up taking a week's break from working on it for what seemed like life spilling over and intersecting throughout the days. I began again last night, picking up where I last left off. My progress is below...

I began noticing that it has a flame-like quality to it. Originally, it was based on folds of fabric. However, I'm willing to let it move in this undulating pattern. It will be interesting to see what comes of it in the final stages...