This time I’m not really late because I have given up following a schedule these days. Especially since I’ve only been back on Cape for ten days, three of which were gobbled up by a wicked case of jet lag, although the trip back was tedious but smooth. I’ve only now stopped thinking Paul is on the sofa with me when I wake up after falling asleep in front of the TV. Anyway, the malaise of not being in Newcastle with him has finally worn off. Before I left, I finished Mersey, above, the Work In Progress piece previewed in my last post. It and the Whip-Poor-Will from the post before the last one are still in Newcastle as I build a body of work and develop an artist presence in the UK. Paul took the photo below with the two paintings to use for that purpose. Sorry about the resting bitch face, but being an artist is a serious business.

Also, two days before my leaving, we went to the Fatfield/Coxgreen part of Sunderland where Paul used to play along the River Wear, pronounced Weir, when he was a kid. One side of the river is more wooded than the other, but as you can see from these two photos above and below, both sides are beautiful. The Romans were in the area at one point and I saw some of their obscure brickwork on our walk. Newcastle has remnants of the fortress walls that surrounded its medieval town, and remains of Hadrian’s Wall are scattered around the region although most of it is west along the 84-mile coast to coast trail you can hike if you are so inclined. Newcastle definately ain’t London but it has a fascinating history that has nothing to do with football or Geordie accents. Yes, some of them talk funny but it’s charming and I miss it.

Meanwhile, I have news about the project I‘ve been hinting at recently. In a nutshell, a production company making a video series called The Story of Art in America was in Provincetown this week to shoot an episode for their sixth season. They included our library where we locals read Moby Dick, from cover to cover, every April. They also featured four artists. One whose resume would make your socks roll up and down, another who’s a well-known performance artist, the third is a muralist who was just voted Best Provincetown Artist by our art museum, and, well, me - because of my Guardians installation at the Tourism Building. They squeezed into my studio with their equipment for an hour-long interview and then we went to the installation for some more footage there as well. I’ve had plenty of time to get used to the idea and even scheduled my return from Newcastle to accommodate the filming, but you know, little ole me and three of Provincetown’s most important artists - Yikes. Best start using my resting bitch face portrait, Baby’s about to get famous. Maybe.