The Quick Brown Fox

The Quick brown fox jumped over the lazy sleeping dog.


Twitter/X: @johnmswofford
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  I’m a dedicated painter focusing on clothed figures, portraits and landscapes.  My work is colorful but not overpowering—and I hope to convey a sensation or thought that leaves the viewer second guessing what a subject might be thinking or how a landscape is meant to be interpreted. 

  I don’t go into a painting with a specific theme in mind; I let the images paint themselves to some extent—and I try to interpret after the fact or leave the idea up to the viewer. 

  Usually, I try to get the canvas covered using a little turpenoid with my oil paints and then as the painting progresses I switch to a walnut oil based medium.  I paint in the bigger shapes and then focus on a few important details.  The picture is complete, for me, when I can’t find fault with the painting upside down or in a photograph.    

When I’m not painting I’m writing–I keep myself busy. Here I’m holding a book of sonnets that I wrote called The Infidel. I was happy to be a finalist in the poetry category of the Independent Author Network book of the year awards.  (The Infidel, 2024).

Magazines, nowadays, don’t go for rhyming poems so much, but I like to work with rhyme and so I do both rhyme and free verse. My poems get rejected a lot but I’ve had a little success. These poems, that were accepted for publication, can be found under Poetry Collection here on my website.

I studied math for a while so I could take physics classes–and, although I may never get accepted into an academic journal, I’ve published my papers on a good website for physicists, and people have been downloading my work, which is deeply satisfying.

I’m not plagued by anything anymore–but I’m schizophrenic, which means that I learn things a little differently than most people, and I depend a great deal on my family. I’m serious about taking my medication because I know with certainty that it helps.

I identify as queer, which, for me, means that my sexuality doesn’t fit any particular category. This identity has a great effect on my writing, if not my painting. I don’t know why, but I generally prefer to paint women instead of men.