Since I last wrote, the work hasn’t slowed. If anything, it’s deepened.
My new album just dropped today on Spotify—thirteen pieces that grew out of the same space as Pondering Eternity, but move in a few different directions. The music and image work are starting to feel less like separate projects and more like parts of the same inquiry.
If you’d like to listen:
Studies: Before the Sound (Spotify)
There’s also a growing set of music + video pieces on YouTube.
And the full Pondering Eternity series continues to take shape on the site.
At the same time, the Blurred Realities work hasn’t let go. It’s still unfolding—if anything, becoming more direct. The paintings are leaning further into photographic collage, less concerned with blending and more interested in what happens when image and paint hold their own ground. The tension feels closer to the point.
And I applied for the Guggenheim this year and wasn’t selected, but the process itself was more than worthwhile. It forced a kind of excavation—looking back across the work and seeing the continuity across media more clearly.
More soon.
John Gerstner
St. Augustine, Florida
Field Notes is my occasional letter about new music, paintings and ideas from the studio.