Painting: Oil on wood, 41in by 47in

Drawing: Charcoal on Paper, about the same size, a bit shorter...

I did this drawing during the summer of 2007 when I first moved up to Washington. The house I was staying at in Olypmia had this mattress in the living room thrown carelessly over other furniture. I liked it visually, the repetition of the dimples and what not, as well as the oddity of the thing: an item rendered useless due to its position.

In the beginning, I felt the left hand side needed more. But, when I went to paint it a year later, I decided otherwise. I like certain things about both, but am not satisfied completely with either of them. I see things in the painting that I would change, but I'm not sure if I care enough to do it.
Update! I gave this painting to a guy I knew when I was thinking of moving to the east coast. That was a bad  idea. He didn't seem to care about it and it was damaged in a flood. So he threw it away.

Oil on canvas, 5 by 4 feet

I completed this in June of 2009. It took about 7 months. Now that it's finished, I'm not sure what to think of it. While working on it, I was in love with it. But towards the end I grew to lothe it's presence. In short, it's not the direction I want to go: it conveys a message I don't care to say being spoken in a voice not quite my own. This is not to say that I don't feel it's good; it's a solid painting. But it doesn't feel right.

On that same note, creating this has given me insight as to the direction I DO want to go. So for that I'm grateful to it. My current painting feels more in tune with who I am and how I see things.