How much of an effect does your environment play on the work that you make. I spent some time today looking at galleries I used to visit in Seattle when I lived out there. I love the direction painting is going on the west coast. Urban imagery has a dark feel that attracts me. I find it nearly impossible to work in that vein here in Asheville. I can only paint happy pictures that make the viewer want to vomit with joy. I have become Matisse when all I ever wanted was to be a blue Picasso. God forbid I should paint anything academic in Asheville, all the potters in town would form a posse, circle up the wagons and run me out of town. Why do I have to go onto the internet just to remind myself that minimalism accually did exist, I am not making this shit up.