Above these words you see #148 in my series of drawings that I have posted over the last couple of years. I have so far refrained from comment on these works. These drawings were initially a mystery even to me, but I gradually realized I was doing studies for a future series of fine art pieces. That series of studies is now concluded, and I have started the formal series. This series is simply called: DOCUMENTS.

A few technical points: The studies as you see them are on various different papers, and vary from about six-by-eight inches to about two-by-three inches. In my experimentation, I used a variety of inks and colored mediums as well as several different metallic foils and such on the works. They were then glued into an old ledger book, hence the numbers that appear in the upper corners (some of the pages were missing from the old ledger, therefore: the gaps in the numbered series). In a nod to the "internet era," the works were dated on the day I posted them on this blog, not necessarily the day they were completed. In fact, I finished this one, #148, well over a month ago. On #148, you will notice a stamp of my own design in the lower right corner, which contains the number and date of the piece, as well as my signature: "R.E.C. Thompson." This stamp will appear on every one of the formal series of DOCUMENTS. What finally shook out of the studies as the "standard" approach could be described as: watercolor, archival ink, and gold foil on paper.

My certainty that mystery is often just as good as exegesis - at least where art is concerned - is in conflict with my natural motor-mouth tendencies, and I could no doubt go on and on ad infinitum about this work and what it means to me and the myriad of influences that make up "what it's all about." Again, I am going to refrain. As I have shown this work to my friends and colleagues, I've discovered that the feelings the DOCUMENTS evoke in others, and the imaginative responses the work elicits, are at least as interesting as what I myself would say about them. (My favorite comment, courtesy of G.D. Armstrong, luthier: "It looks like if you laid them all out in the right order you could... build something....") However, I will say this: I have loved all the comments about this work that some of you have left here, and I deeply appreciate that anybody out there is paying attention to this kind of stuff.

Take a good last look for now, my friends: Over the next month I'm going to slowly delete all but a few of the works (just for spice!) from this blog. They are studies, after all, and while I'm glad you've all enjoyed them, it's time to focus on the "real thing" now.

My hope and fantasy was that I would only post this final study to the blog when I had secured gallery representation for my work, and that I could announce the good news. I have finished and beautifully framed six of the DOCUMENTS at this point, and the initial response from galleries is overwhelmingly positive as far as the actual art goes, but alas: we live in hard times. I actually had one gallery say "We love these, we know just how we'd hang them and market them, but we're letting people go, and certainly not taking on anybody new. Sorry! Good luck to you!" I still have high hopes that some Santa Fe or Taos gallery (at the very least!) is going to soon take a chance on this work, tough times or not. Needless to say, I will post a big ol' banner blog to announce the great event when it happens.

In the mean time, if you'd like to purchase an original DOCUMENT they are currently available directly from me, and if you own an art gallery and would be interested in showing my work, please call or use the contact page of my website to get in touch, and we'll talk about what I've got for you!

Thank you all for your curiosity, support, comments, and love of art through the posting of the entire series of studies for DOCUMENTS. There's more to come!

Yr Humble Servant, Chipper