Listening While I Paint: Why I’m Starting This Series

I spend hours in the studio each week, building out patterns, balancing color, and laying down wax dot by dot. During the design phase of a piece, I need absolute focus—no distractions, no soundtrack, just me and the geometry in front of me.

But once the design is locked and I’m deep into the meditative rhythm of painting, I keep myself company with something I’ve always loved: stories.

Audiobooks, recorded plays, long-form interviews… they fill the space around me while I work. And somewhere along the line, I realized I’m consuming a lot of great storytelling, sometimes more than I could ever talk about in casual conversation. So I’m launching this little ongoing blog series as a place to share what I’m listening to—what moves me, what surprises me, and what simply makes the hours in the studio feel fuller.

I’m not trying to connect every title back to my art or make grand statements about inspiration. This is more about companionship. These stories keep me company as I create, and writing about them feels like a natural extension of that.

Lately, my biggest discovery has been LA Theatre Works (LATW). They’ve built an astounding archive of recorded plays—beautifully produced, impeccably acted, and accessible right on Audible. As a lifelong theater guy, finding their catalog felt like stumbling into a secret room in a house I thought I already knew.

So that’s where I’ll start: with the worlds LATW is bringing into my Provincetown and Newton studios, one play at a time.

More soon—there’s a lot to talk about.