I was riding my bike ahead of my friend Bill so I just pointed the camera behind me and snapped away. Taken in Venice, CA April 11, 2005.

It has been quite a long time since I have felt focused in a meaningful way and committed to a fairly certain and specific path with regard to my work and career. The best word to describe this has been UNCERTAINTY. I have actually rather enjoyed this and allowed myself to settle deeply and comfortably in this space, knowing there would come a day when something, someone or some experience, event or idea would propel me into a more committed and determined direction.

I believe that day is drawing near, as this week is the first week in a very long time that I have felt restless and slightly useless. I am still in the midst of a lot of great projects – even diving back into my book yesterday after a few weeks of neglect – but I am feeling a stronger pull to shift my energy into high gear and set some concrete goals for myself. I have dabbled in all kinds of different ideas, projects and mediums, and they are all teaching me something valuable, but now I want to narrow my focus and dig deeper into fewer endeavors. Not only with art and design stuff, but with other distractions as well. Working on my own at home is something I love – I don’t mind the isolation and I often work in silence – but it is easy for me to allow time to dribble through my fingers from things like email, cleaning the house, running errands, chatting on the phone and organizing my messes. Discipline has never been my strong suit – except when I had my card business and was shipping up to 25 orders per day – but I need to think carefully about what has been working best for me over these past many months and what I can do without. Where can I ask for help and where should I let go?

I have been bursting outward for a long time now, ready to try just about anything, and now it is time to curl up in my seashell for a bit and contemplate where I will go from here. I will still devote time and energy to exploring new media, techniques and ideas, but I want such work to be done against a backdrop that is more focused and goal-oriented.

"What’s really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overriding willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way. Simply put, making art is chancy – it doesn’t mix well with predictability. Uncertainty is the essential, inevitable and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art."
- David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art and Fear