Questions, No Questions.

Living the life as an artist. Rich indeed, the deed of creation, creating something out of nothing. Entering the studio on a daily basis with the excitement of what is going to happen today? What will come through these hands, this imagination, inspiration, divine or forced, allowed or willed, what’s it going to take today to bring creativity into being. These are the questions asked or not that always hang in the background. Yes it is so rich to be blessed with a life of purpose, a reason for getting up and getting out, a reason for being born and a reason to have lived. In my youth I thought art could save the world, now I see it as an act that saves myself from the slippery slope of mediocrity. I strive to create beauty for no other reason then for beauty’s sake, to make art that has a deeper meaning than can be known in the process as it is made from the place of no thought but many decisions. If it can touch another, spark a light in the shadow of existence then just perhaps it is all worthwhile. Some sense of trust permeates that knows what’s in the work, it’s universal as it is emotion skill and vision, yes my vision and my skill but emotion, I feel that belongs to the collective. Sadness, anger, fear and joy is embodied in the work, we all carry this within perhaps for different reason and perhaps for exactly the same but either way it is a link that binds us to the experience of life. At times I laugh when I work at times I have cried, I can tense up in fear and I can dance around the studio overflowing with Joy. My hope is that these works permeate with such emotion will touch the collective connection within us all and remind us of the humanity shared by our existence. We are all in these together, victims and the perpetrators, we all suffer, the lovers of life suffer death as love and loss is inevitable. This is not a bad thing to suffer this is the beauty of being this is the contrast that lets us know joy, this is what compassion and connection are born from.

Is art the nature of being human? Are the winds of creation the source of inspiration? Is there a silent howl beneath the breath that urges us on to create? Or is it just a way of giving importance to an artistic life? These are questions I’m trying not to ask, working to come to the place of no matter, the place that dose not analyze, just is and that is enough. Enough to walk in nature, service the body with food and shelter and to enter the studio with an open spirit, open to allow creation to flow unhampered with questions of reason.

Above is the Image of "Elders" a public sculpture created in a traffic circle in Grass Valley CA. A prayer wheel honoring those that suffered during the California gold rush and sending out the essence of love, joy, kindness, and forgiveness.