Painter and blogger Jonathan Beer writes about a recent residency in Leipzig, Germany. An exhibition of Beer's work, Happening and History, will be on view at Kathleen Cullen Gallery, New York, from September 6 – October 11, 2012.

Beer writes "I worried and wondered what it would be like to leave New York and make work in a different city, in a different studio for such a long period, no longer a student but a fully-fledged artist… Would my definition of Work, a creative life that is one both in and out of the studio, survive when truly put to the test?… I came to finally understand what it is like to make work in the studio without laziness, to push beyond a half completed thought and some painting tricks to find something that is earned through work and failure. Painting is an attitude before an action. The best paintings are complex instead of complicated, and appear easy when they were hardest.."