I looked at my artistic process and embraced all areas that gave me joy – such as color, brushwork, and thick, gooey paint. How large did I like to work? What subjects lit me up? What time of day was I most alive? I also looked at processes that drained my energy such as doing preparatory thumbnail sketches. I began to focus on the elements I enjoyed and downplayed or eliminated those I didn’t. This was very radical thinking for me…I took it down to the level of which tubes of paint do I truly love working with and which are there just because they had always been there – workhorses, perhaps, but tired and unexciting…out they went….what? No cadmium yellow? No cad red? Ultramarine blue? Yes. Out of this intense investigation has come a blossoming and joyousness in my work. There has been a letting go of fear and an embracing of subject matter that I would never have considered without this search for joy. Paint dogs? Paint crowds of people? But I love dogs! I love seeing people out enjoying themselves. I love that energy! Why not paint it? Paint the energy! Indeed! And so I am.