Studio post · May 21, 2026
Things are officially entering crunch time here at the Occidental Fine Arts Center as we prepare for our soft opening exhibition at the beginning of next month. The entire studio has shifted into that familiar final stretch where everyone is racing to push paintings across the finish line, or at least to a stage where they feel strong enough to stand in front of the public. I’ll personally be showing three of the larger works I’ve developed during my time in Seattle so far, and all three still demand a considerable amount of attention before they’re truly ready. The primary focus right now is my large Pike Place Market painting, which has occupied most of my energy over the last three months. Of everything I’ll be exhibiting, it’s the piece I feel most strongly about presenting well. I think the subject matter will resonate naturally with the people walking through the exhibition. Ironically, it’s also the painting that still requires the most work. My MMA scene, which spent a long time sitting on the back burner while I focused elsewhere, is finally entering its later passages. At the moment it’s probably my least resolved of the three paintings conceptually, but fortunately it’s also the smallest and doesn’t require quite the same level of commitment as the others to bring together successfully. The mermaid painting is the closest to completion. At this stage, it mostly comes down to a handful of smaller passages I want to helicopter into and refine so that the final result feels as polished and convincing as possible before it goes on the wall. Of course, finishing the paintings themselves is only part of the equation. Beyond the studio work, there’s the logistics of hanging the exhibition, organizing the space, coordinating promotion, preparing mockups, and trying to bring an entire event together in a way that feels thoughtful and cohesive. This whole fellowship year has been something of an experiment and a learning process, and this exhibition is proving that once again. I think next time around it would probably benefit everyone to have a slightly longer runway leading into a show of this scale. Still, that’s part of the value of doing it. Every challenge now becomes preparation for the much larger public opening planned for the fall So for now, it’s back to the easel. And if you happen to be in Seattle for the June First Thursday Art Walk, I’d love for you to stop by the Occidental Fine Arts Center and see what we’ve been building over these past months.