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February has never been my friend.  Growing up in the Northeast, days ended abruptly at 4 in the afternoon, snow and ice covered the land, and you'd been dealing with cold for four months with no end in sight.  This February in Austin I discovered Chocolate Lucky Charms and was dismayed by the ease in which food can be consumed in America in a trip to the local grocer.
 

Things really started kicking in March - besides seeing some incredible art - Phillip Trussell had another incredible solo show, the Texas Biennial was reborn in Austin, and I took a week off from the studio and teaching classes to partake in one of the great traditions in Austin - a SXSW drinking binge.  One night at a local bar during SXSW I was standing in line for the bathroom when a man from California who was using the stall as a phone booth, renting out property in LA on his cellphone in the stall.  With a line behind me, I knocked, but to no avail.  After knocking louder, the arrogant bastard continued chatting.  With my temper raging, I spit over the wall, forcing the man to flee the scene while still chatting.  My hatred for cell phones rose to new levels.
 

My Dad flew me out to Columbus, Ohio to join him for our semi-regular father-son college hockey Frozen Four trip.  The short week was a blast, and when I got home I finally started in on some serious work: stretching canvases and firming up plans for my solo show in August.  I also was quoted in the newspaper and was dismayed by Austin's venerable ARTHouse charging artists admission to the opening reception after receiving donated works of art to sell in their own fundraiser.  That little affair made me realize selling my own work outside the art world's cozy, self referential and discouraging walls was my only salvation.