I have heard of an Arabic proverb that might go as follows: "Throw your heart out in front of you and run ahead to catch it." This has been what I have done with most of my life as an Artist - bend towards that which I felt a twinge of love in and follow it: drawing, painting, singing, writing, drums, dancing, acting, teaching, football, soccer, storytelling, music, music and music and more teaching. I work daily to find ways to love these things more while looking for other things to bring into the fold. Make chores and responsibilities more attractive, worthy of loving. 

      

Artistically, I have lived on a merry-go-round jumping off and onto one activity after another, from one approach to the opposite, looking for unstable ground within the parameters of drawing and painting. I have drawn since my earliest memories. In my 52 years of being an Artist, b.k.a. pro-active, delusional "muckey-muck", I have whittled my workshop regimen down to scratching into plexiglass, striking and caressing and rubbing and cajoling paint onto (and off of) canvas, and occasionally playing the part of a quasi-respectable commissioned portraitist or plein-air landscape "peintre".

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It does not feel odd that I am becoming more adamant about maintaining a substantial level of confusion within my work. (I am hanging out with more 5, 6, and 7 year olds the past few years.) I have come to love, and trust, each of these image making processes for the kinds of visual submissions they help me formulate in my "Art Fog". I don't seem to seek clarity or understanding nearly as much as fulfillment and joy (especially in the making of the work).

 

What does this have to do with you? I do not assume to know. I for one hope that upon viewing my work, you will bend toward it as well as other Love inspired phenomenon. I am confident that since you are here, that toward Love is where you often lean.

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Now, I have said nothing of Pain - the great teacher: anger, sadness, regret, guilt, insecurity, fear, contempt.....outgrowths of living and loving. These are some of the spices of life and are in full abundance throughout my work if I am doing it well. I won't go into all of that here. That is what the work is for. Aah! I hear my theme music starting and will step away....

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"Could you call on Lady Day? Could you call on John Coltrane? Now, 'cause they'll, they'll wash your troubles
Your troubles, your troubles, your troubles away!"

                     - Gil Scott-Heron (1949 – 2011)

 

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