As one by one withdraw the lofty actors.

"As one by one withdraw the lofty actors."

Acrylic and newspaper on canvas.

16x20.

Ideas for new series sometimes come to me in bits and bites. I will see things pop up again and again. Pictures of riots and revolution. Civil War images. The poetry and life of Walt Whitman. They pop in my head and ruminate and, for me, the biggest challenge is to figure out how they will fit together. To find a new language of figures and symbols that will tell the story that I want to tell. 

This is my first attempt at painting Ulysses S. Grant. Not bad, but not what I wanted. I wanted more. More drama, more expression. He's been through a lot and he's sad and tired.

Blocking in shapes and color. This has more drama.

More details in the face. Adding white to pull out the profile.

Added more blues and blacks and lots of water. Started painting in the Greek rioter being knocked down by a police officer. The writing behind them is Walt Whitman's poem "Death of General Grant."

The last steps were to add the first line of the poem (also the title of the painting) across the top and make it look like it's been sitting on a wall for a long time-it almost faded away. Then the flowers-they represent Whitman's transcendentalism.