Returned to town from my first vacation to visit family in four years. It should not be called a vacation, but you get the idea: not working, relaxing, eating holiday food, visiting family and friends. I still don't think many of my family accepts my art practice as it exists. It's like a son that works in IT. They want their computer fixed but maybe fail to understand how all the parts and applications work together (conceptually speaking).

With the art in the homes I visited, I am certain mine would be tossed into the dumpster if I were other than a relative. For sure, I would not show any art to them, so that I would not have to field questions: "Why do you paint everything black?" "Do you have something against color? I love color." "That drawing (of a dead plant or animal) is too dark." "Can't you make 'pretty pictures'?" on, and on, and on.... I did point them to the video, "Total Disappearance," now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art (N. Miami). I think they had questions about the video but I let the video answer the questions.

Afterall, it was Christmas, and for that holiday, gleefully celebrated by my family, was all about them, not me.