Art & Me

Some things that may have informed my arts endeavor:

• I used to think it was important to have a secret.  I no longer believe this.
• I grew up in an environment where fear dictated choices and decisions.
• I am the son of a fearful mother and a father who had no positive male role models in his life. Both are generous, loving, and kind, in the ways that they can be.
• I am the father of two powerful daughters. I strive to model for them the wide-eyed, open-hearted life.
• I am not a scholar or a theorist.
• As a novelist and a poet, I think deeply and carefully about my work, my project.
• As a (self-taught) visual artist, I prefer to let my inner juvenile delinquent run the show. I don’t think about why I make the images I make.  Instead I think about what’s next.  I let the images lead me.  My standards are pretty low (compared to what I hold myself to as a writer), and my fun-factor is really high.
• The masks are tricky. Hard to keep in place. Even harder to remove.  Everything I paint or write may be a self-portrait. Or they may be pictures of (how I see) you. Is there a difference?