Did you miss me?

So I've been wholly absent from art for a few months now, mostly working and being lazy. The art news is a show coming up at Pancho Villa, for which I'm making all new paintings! Here are two, the color balance doesn't show up well, no gradient, but you'll get it. right?

I've taken a new direction on painting, well, maybe not new, but more extreme than before. I feel like art as a practice should fulfill the following traits (and this list will grow as I get more crotchety)

1. Look Good
2. Enjoy Making it (not every moment, but overall)
3. Enjoy living with it (most likely you will see it more than anyone else.)
4. Special enough for you to love, broad enough that others can be touched as well. Like Clifford Still, when I see his paintings, I feel nothing and I've never met someone else who has. Be it nostalgia, lust, fear, sadness, etc. Its art and its about life, show something!
5. Nothing wrong with subtlety

6. Nothing wrong with happy colors