This is what I saw the last time I left Reno: a storm brewing that never quite broke. I knew life would be different, but I couldn’t see yet how different.

For now I’m taking pictures; it’s an interesting enough pursuit to be both a distraction and a kind of self-medication. It’s not the first time I’ve taken pictures. In one way or another, I’ve been making pictures most of my life. Suddenly, though, I’m interested in photographs for their own sake, not just as reference material for paintings or stories.

My first “serious” photographs — meaning photographs in which I pay attention to such photographer-ish things as exposure and saturation — are like the one above: moody landscapes, self-consciously striving for gravitas. In other words, they’re a lot like my paintings used to be.

But that seems to be changing. I don’t have a goal. I just want to keep going, and stay open to inspiration. Even if in large part because that keeps me from dwelling on the pain.