“If I Had A Choice.” I worked on this painting, or rather on the texture, for more than a year and one day realized it suited itself to the texture of trees. I painted the black bear emerging from the aspen trees, and it turned out to be one of those paintings I wish I’d never sold. The title, if I had written it in it’s completion, would have said, “ If I Had A Choice I Would Paint Like This All The Time.” Perhaps the best part about my life of art is that I don’t have a choice in what shows up on canvas. That statement is easy enough to prove, because when I think I do have a choice and I paint exactly as I think I should, the painting turns out to be contrived and lifeless.