AJ Alanson Author

I’m fascinated with opposites right now. After my woodcut prints for Christmas cards, it’s like I’m seeing the negative space around objects, nature, even people, and their opinions. In art, negative space isn’t a value judgement, but rather it means “the absence of.” Maybe I’m craving nothingness after this last year. Maybe the void is less scary than the event horizon. Or perhaps I’m working to see context rather than simply gulping down the ugly in front of me. Like, stargazing; it’s easier if you look at the little dots just slightly askance.

This sketch is of Celeste, I horse I met a couple of months ago on a wintery, fairytale trip to “the barn” in Connecticut. As if by magic, the photos seemed to catch the energy around her, the results of her efforts, as she trotted out her side pass in harness. I decided to only record the highlights.

I’m still tapping out the next book in The Admiral Inn series and if you notice that I talk about writing, editing, publishing, artwork ad nauseum, just squint a little. Look a little past the post, and recognize my efforts are my own, not crawled, stolen, blenderized, and barfed up into an alphabet soup of only 1s and 0s. I am not AI. I am AJ.

P.S. Someone already cracked wise about those old, velvet paintings and no, my next one isn’t dogs playing poker.