Absenteeism.

It's been a long time since I wrote, or did anything on here, but I find myself lured back, about five years after I first had an account, (verlaine76).

In five years I have had a hell of a journey both physically and emotionally. I started teaching. I grew a beard just to be a grown-up. I met a girl. After a year, I moved to Sweden. A year and a half later we broke up. I went back to my hometown. Moped a lot. Started teaching again.

In all this, a sparse amount of art actually got produced, to such an extent that I don't think I'd even call myself an artist anymore, in spite of having gotten a commissiont oday for a full-sized portrait. It's been a long time since I felt anything other than someone who went to art school, lost faith in art and instead taught it, avoided it, and intermittently dabbled in getting back on the horse.

In five years, I have moved apartments not once, not twice, but four times. Had two relationships. Lost at least 30% of the friends I once had, through simply LIFE getting in the way. . . and I think that's probably rubbing off.

Not least of all in the work in process I've got on the go right now now that I'm productive again - all of it very sketchy and half-finished, and at THAT stage, where you're hesitant to work on the pieces unless you're completely in the right frame of mind.

Anyway. I guess I'm intending on sticking around here. This site that once upon a time was kind of my first port of call when I came online.

After deleting all my spam, that is.

Some things never change, I suppose. . .