Steve Burnham
Milwaukee, WI, USA
Coffee Klatsch, 2021
Acrylic on canvas

When pandemic isolation took hold, nothing in my painting practice changed: the building where I rent a studio remained open, and my early morning and weekend studio time was unaltered. As always, I painted alone. As always, I was never alone: coffee was my drug, my friend; favorite artists and their art (cut from books and tacked to the wall) were my muses, taskmasters; and the unfinished painting in front of me was a mirror and a malleable other self. We klatsched. We kvetched. We worked toward communion.