The show of last ten years at the Cleveland Institute —
Soon Art with his friends Geo. M & Eddie P. came in to play jazz records... I was not “put out” by the music, but rather enjoyed it, and especially their youthful enthusiasm.
Afternoon – mild “softening” of the weather – when the thermometer showed 38, I decided to make an outdoor painting...
Very cold — (+5◦) — a clear brilliant day — Both of us up at 7:00 — before the sun came up, white vapors arising from the creek — collecting on the trees and bushes in the form of white frost —
He said he had sent me a letter telling he had received the “Moonlight in a Flower Garden” and was “wild about it.”
When I look at the sketch I worked on Saturday & yesterday, and note how I achieved a certain sort of freedom in it, former nature studies seem inhibited; and even this one is perhaps a little too self-contained— I think, oh, when will I ever really let myself go and express the tremendous force of nature, or will I die at last without having done so? But the vital force must be within me.
I lost my job in the early spring in 1921 (due to the post-war depression) and since no other work was available, I devoted my full time to painting. For almost the first time in my career, I turned to the creation of larger, more complicated pictures that required weeks to complete.
From mid-January until the end of my departure for the Armed Services, my main interest was Humanity, not Nature. It was a bitter winter.
A “breath-taking” morning—the trees covered with heavy frost—The crystals reflecting in beautiful colored stars that winked off and on as one walked along.
A dream—B & I on a train going southward, as we entered Virginia it became warmer & more mellow—a drowsy Summer afternoon with golden ochre sunlight...