So, I've been spending the last year, my first after graduate school, trying to get into the right rhythm in my studio. About halfway through my last year at MSU, I hit stride and really figured out how I need to work as an artist. Not only was my work at a really great point, but I was really having success with the way I was working in my studio and out. Instead of working late into the night, coming home at 2 or 3 a.m., I got up at 5 and hit the studio by 6 or 6:30a.m. Your brain is actually at its sharpest 30 min to an hour after you wake. I'd start the day off with 30 min of meditation, 1 hr of reading, and another couple hours of drawing. By the time my friends would start to show up it would make for a nice break to wander into their studios and talk a bit, see what they were up to. The rest of the day, between classes and TA duty, I'd alternate between working on the wall pieces and drawing, using 1-2pm for mindless monotonous work as I would always get tired around then and found that I wasn't as sharp. I'd go home by 5, so I could spend time with Nicole, get a work out in at the YMCA, and get to bed by 10. Pretty structured. I was basically trying to take care of other aspects of my process other than the actual act of making the art. I needed to be sharper mentally. When my mind is fresh and sharp, I have more energy and can focus my efforts. I began to approach trying to be a good artist the same way that I approached trying to be a good wrestler. You have to approach your training from multiple angles, taking care of all aspects of the sport, physical and mental. You want to "peak "yourself and only compete when you are at your highest level of awareness and readiness. Winning in wrestling is all about control. You have to control your opponent and exert control over as many aspects of the match as possible, from your warm up to whether you or your opponent step on the mat first. You eliminate as many variables as possible so you can focus on your moves and your tactics only. It's been hard to keep up this kind of discipline outside of school, with a full time job. I'm just now beginning to figure out how I might be able to do it. I get up early, between 5-6:30 (lately I've had a hard time getting up by 5) so I can work a bit before work. I try to work in a 30 min meditation, but can't always get it done and reserve the morning for drawing or reading. The evening is for working on the wall pieces. I try to fit in a work out after work and on the weekends. On Saturday and Sunday I do marathon art making with the same structure as my last semester at MSU. This year I've struggled to be disciplined and stumbled a bit. I've gone weeks having only made a couple drawings and have had to make compromises in my studio practice. I'm just now beginning to hammer out how I can make it work and be as productive as possible. I've had to cut out a lot of reading time and be more flexible on when I work on various projects. I've found that I absolutely can not cut out my workouts, they work as a base around which I build every thing else. They anchor me, providing me with a basic steady discipline and give me physical and mental energy. I definitely think better when I'm exercising consistently than when I'm not.Finally...Here are some of the things I've done and am working on currently. 
Above are some drawings/paintings I've made this year. I've started working in gouache and Gac on Yupo as well as the pastel on mylar. Some really nice things have come out of this. 
Playing with light. Part of my struggle to move on my installations this year has had to do with my inability to figure out what to do next. I got a little too wrapped up in trying to make my structured studio practice work and became obsessed with the conceptual part of my work. I kept wanting to make work that fell in line with what I had been reading and thinking about. I wanted to make all the right decisions that would make the work really smart. All that happened was that I couldn't move on any of the installations and when I finished a piece it was pretty lame. The work dragged and I got stuck, I got tired. I forgot how to play. I forgot that play is what art making is to me. Nicole really awakened me from my stupor recently. She has been working so freely, fluidly, and confidently and her new work is really charged with energy. She made some suggestions that I am putting into action and I've been newly invigorated by her example. My instincts have been my greatest asset as an artist and I'm remembering how to use them. 
This is based on the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas as seen from the Mirage. I did a different version of this one at the end of grad school, I think this is better. I have a bit left to do to it. The yellow part will be lit. I like the gestural way that I used the foam in this one.
This piece is the first that I've done that is based off of one of my drawings rather than on a space. I'm trying to change the way that I work on the installations. I've been wanting my process for making the wall pieces to be more like my drawing process. The installations were seeming stiff and a little stagnant lately. I've decided to use my studio like I use my drawing books, working quickly and from the gut, making decisions based on what my urges are. I want to fly through the installations, documenting them. In a month or two I should have a number of installations that I can rework, the same way I make the drawings. This way the wall pieces will develop and change more quickly, helping me work through their issues. Hopefully, the "quickly" made wall pieces will be nice in themselves and good enough to make a stereoscope out of. Then, I can make more polished versions of the best of the crop. I decided that working from a drawing would be a good way to start out this way of working.
I've been drawn to a lot of negative spaces in addition to folds lately. They've been coming out nicely.
This spread from Harper's Bazzar has yielded quite a few drawings and I'm currently starting an installation based on the image above. It isn't going as well as I envisioned it, but it will be a good exercise.
Baroque palaces have been the images I've been looking at the most lately. I want to combine these with elements from religious spaces and alters. I've been having some issues with moving to making some pieces based on photos like these. Usually the pieces are based on my memory of an experience of a space and a crappy photo I have of the space that I took myself. I don't know if using a good, composed image of a space I've never been works for me conceptually or in regard to process. Something I'm still working with.
My process of working on my installations has evolved yet again... I have begun to implement my strategy of working on the wall pieces in the same manner that I work on the drawings, but it hasn't gone quite as I've envisioned it. I'm not working as fast as I want yet and because of a lack of time (due to a 50 hr work week) some interesting things have developed as far as my process goes. My original idea was to bust out a wall piece in a one to two days, document it, and move on. Having to work for an hour here, two hours there, and a half hour here and there has forced me to adapt and change my strategy a bit. The original plan was meant to force me to work from my instincts. As I've been slowed down, and had to sit on pieces for days, having pauses in between working on them, I've seen that maybe concentrated and focused pushes of working might not work as well for this strategy. I've had to make a move, then walk away from the piece and come back later, make a move, and walk away again. Because of this, I avoided making a bad decision on my new installation (below) that I would have made had I just worked straight through without pause. I tend to do this with drawings too now, which is working good. So, I'll have a number of pieces going and I'll float between them, taking breaks to do other things as well, having a fluid way of working. Keeps me on my toes more, keeps me fresh and more "ballsy" to make hard decisions.
Above is the "great hall" piece and the image I'm working from. Originally I was going to make the edges fade more gradually from dark to light brown, but because I had a pause of 5 days or so in between sessions of working on the painted part, I realized that it is better the first way that I painted it. It's good to live with it a bit in between moves, as long as I don't let it sit for too long.
I've been threatening to use images from Travel + Leisure for a while now. The piece above (sideways) it the first. Below is a random studio shot. 
