As an artist, I know when it’s time to move on to a new body of work when the current series I’m working on feels like a gimmick. It begins to feel like a gimmick once the rules I’ve created to govern the series I’m working on have been mastered. The gimmick tends to make the compositional process less enjoyable. Art-making has always been a source of learning for me and it’s hard to learn new things from processes or approaches to making that I’ve already worked through. Later, as I’m working on another series governed by a different set of parameters, I bring in elements from the previous series to see how they may affect the new body of work. It’s always a process of hybridization. Once that begins to feel like a gimmick again, I move on to the next series and the next set of rules. Often, I jump between various mediums; usually between drawing, painting, and collage, as well as analog and digital modalities. I’ve also been thinking a lot about sound and other time-based media. I’m also thinking of socially-engaged projects but those have to manifest themselves in a more organic way that doesn’t feel contrived or artificial. Sometimes pauses between each series last a few weeks or months. I engage with other things I enjoy in that “downtime.” Reading, writing, listening to music, looking at other people’s artwork, learning new skills like cooking or sewing, going to drag shows, watching cartoons, playing video games, doom scrolling,…etc. These things let me “forget” the work a bit and provide a source of new direction while things bubble away in the subconscious. I still engage in making but making during these rest periods involves experimentation with material and concepts, holding each losely enough to let new things in. During these periods, I focus less on cohesion and more on seeking new routes for the work.