Steger Sculpture Blog

The Burden Boat Project

2011-09-07T06:01:00.000-07:00

The Burden Boat Project.

I will be conducting this ceremony on 9/11 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC this weekend. Conducting I call it rather than a performing as this is not entertaining but a ritual and it involves all that choose to participate. This project has opened me up to something new within. It is easy to call myself an artist because I have twenty-five years of art in my wake, but this has woken up the healer, shaman and ritualist within me. At first this was intimidating to my ego, as I do not have a shaman certificate but gosh I never went to art school either. When I get out of my own way and just allow my life to unfold moment-by-moment this is the kind of thing that happens, I become more then what I thought I was. I am coming to believe we are all more then we think we are and we all are healers in one form or another.

This whole project came from my need to heal my own deep pain. With a broken heart and a broken spirit and pain that I questioned whether I could endure, I came back to my art for healing. I sewed by hand dozens of canvass bags and stuffed them with my wood chips, these chips represented my pain and something inside felt better when I had that pain in bags that I could see, hold, feel the weight of and hang outside myself. I eventually found joy again in my life and after that intense dark time the joy was felt with more gratitude then I had ever known before. I found myself smiling again and even laughing often all by myself as I walked in the woods.

Shortly after this I was invited to show at the Art gallery of Virginia Tech. The pain I had just gone through gave me compassion for the victim’s families and loved ones involved with the mass shootings that took place a couple years prior on the campus. I wanted to do something meaningful to help ease the pain. The bags I stuffed with my pain, now called burden bags and the healing I found in them sparked the idea to do a participatory art project as part of the sculpture show. A beautiful curved piece of wood showed up that spoke of boat shape and the idea of the Burden Boat originated.

A vessel for people to write their burdens down and place them outside themselves. A place to collectively lighten the load we carry and to realize that we all carry pain not just our own but also the collective pain of others. This allowed the opportunity to see that so many others are carrying burdens as the boat filled we could see that we were not alone in the struggles of life. Over the duration of the show the boat filled with more scraps of paper all inscribed with burdens people were ready to let go of. A courageous act to let go of something we may have held onto for perhaps a lifetime and even holding the identity of who we think we are. On the last day of the show, the burden boat was carried outside onto the grounds of the campus and a ceremony was conducted, the burdens were set ablaze the burden bags that hung over the boat by strings burned through and fell in to a hole dug in the earth, the notes turned to ash and the heaviness of all those burdens became as light as smoke.

On 9/11 the Burden Boat will be carried to the courtyard of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait gallery. Here a new ritual will be conducted to release the burdens associated with the pain of 9/11 ten years later. This time instead of fire the burdens will be cleansed with water. The boat will be placed in a “scrim” of water, a (shallow flowing stream) and water will be poured over the burdens, cleansing them and washing them down stream.

The wet paper now cleansed of burdens will be collected and re-pulped into new handmade sheets of paper and a book will be created for people to write their hopes dreams and intentions of what to do with the space within opened up by the release of their burdens.

This is to happen in a few days from now, I prepare the space and myself and when the time comes it is my job to simply step aside and allow spirit to move as it dose.

2011-06-28T06:08:00.000-07:00

Art heals. I believe all art heals in some way, as self-expression and this way of being in our authenticity is a healing act. I have an interview today with a fox TV station of all things. I will be asked what is it that I do and why?

I do not really know what will come out of me but deep down I trust that the spirit of my creator self knows exactly what to say. Maybe something like this. Art is a journey of the soul, the soul is the journey of the self and through connection art and the true self makes a connection to our divine source. I do not claim to be always in an ecstatic state when I do my art but I can claim there is an overall deep down satisfaction that this is what I do with my life.

The art that I make is inspired and connected to nature. How did that happen? I was a suburban kid and still I found nature in my back yard. I feel we are so deeply rooted in nature no matter where and how we live and I also feel sadly that we deny this of our selves. A form of beauty that’s free available to all and is what we are.

I being a dude with a big fat ego wants to save the world, I with a humble sense of realization of how small I am still want to do something of “good”. So I have set myself down in the land of the Blue Ridge Mountains alone and deep in the woods and I sit. I listen to the birds, the wind, feel the air and contemplate? What the heck am I doing here?

At this point my answer is I am here to absorb the essence of the majestic land, make art from it and take what is created here and transport it into the urban world. I feel the power of the entire forest rests in a single branch, trunk or root. These trees have been here longer then people and they live in the elements all the time, they are the weather, the sounds in the forest, and the still constant motion of life, death and rebirth.

To take a portion of a tree back to my studio, working it by following the energy or natural direction of it’s growth and adding my element as artist/creator and then turning it into something referred to as art. Upon completion it becomes a co-creation with nature. Then to bring it into a gallery, a museum or a home, it now emanates that power of the forest into the human created space.

The beauty I see in this is in the contrast. We as rather sophisticated beings create living spaces based on beauty and function. Nature is all about function and the outcome is often seen as beautiful. Bringing these elements together is a natural co-existence of what I choose to believe is our true nature.

So perhaps I’ll say something similar to that.

2011-04-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

My Lover, Warrior, Magician and King

It is one of those mornings to stay in bed with my lover listening to the rain driving against the bedroom window. A little scary wondering if this wind just might rip the roof off. But its warm in here, the tea is brewed and we have made love for hours and nothing but the weather exists outside this realm. The news, the world, troubles concerns just aren’t relevant this morning. And even though all alone, I feel in this moment, my lover here within me a deep satisfaction and conection. The week has been full of warrior energy, out there in the world doing my best to make “it” happen. I fight to make my art by searching for shows and commissions and funding and doing whatever it takes to create the space the freedom and the inspiration to do what I love.

To be in the studio creating, or walking deep in the woods, this whole crazy world suddenly makes sense. Nature doesn’t care what happens no emotions of good or bad, right or wrong it just dose it’s best to reach for the light, bend and twist if it must, repair if injured and continue to live or just painlessly die to feed the soil for more life to grow. Art dose the same, it deals with obstructions and always finds a way to light, then in time to only to have been, a memory, an inspiration a something that once was. I wonder if communities do the same, deep down we are dependant on one another and at the same time we cling so fiercely to our independence. Like trees each one grows on it’s own but it is the forest that it lives, strives, thrives and dies in.

I am to speak tomorrow as an artist along with a professor and a minister about bridging communities. I trust the right words will find there way through these vocal cords and in the spirit and the intention I set for my art to be a bridge of healing. I love this work, to be called up to speak of what I do not know and at the same time know completely. This is the magician in me that transforms what can’t be understood into some sort of form, in my case it is sculpture and a few chosen words. I want to speak of the creative and how that lives in us all, whatever the form, we are all creating all the time, it is life and with that we are all God if we must be called something.

When my lover is warm and nurturing and when my warrior has fought the good battle and my magician has transformed confusion to truth my King is joyful. He sits upon his humble throne and loves, loves all in his community and his community opens to the world, at this point he needs no possessions, no status, no glory. He loves and that is All.

Image. Black Madonna, she's 84" tall

When the art leads the artist must follow

2011-03-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

When the art leads the artist must follow. Sometimes he must do every thing he can to keep up with speed of art. It’s the creative energy that moves at a pace of it’s own not particularly interested in the pace of the artist that is enticed to create.

Making Art. It often comes in a flash, a dream or a vision during morning tea. All fine and good but the making of the piece may be incredible labor intensive involving research, learning curves, figuring, discovering etcetera. The inspiration dose not care of such obstacles it just says here you go, I gift you with some brilliance now good luck manifesting it. Oh and by the way, while your busy creating that vision, I’ll be sending more ideas, thoughts and brilliance for you to contend with.

My old mentor Raymond Barnhart said to me in his 90’s still with a studio filled with works in progress “the dilemma of getting old, as an artist is that there is even more to do then when you first started”. His personal solution to this is doing the work and loving your friends.

Not only dose creation need to be realized then there is a pull for it to seen in the world. As of late I feel like I have been chasing my art from show to show. This started with an open studio tour the first week of Oct 2010 in Floyd Virginia, the 2^nd and 3^rd week was an open studio in Grass Valley California, the 4^th week was the opening of my solo show in Norfolk Virginia, when that show came down it went directly to Roanoke College for my largest show to date, 39 substantial sculptures, the day that ended was the day to set up works for the Marginal Art Show in downtown Roanoke and at the same time I had three works juried into the Biennial back at Roanoke college, the Marginal show ended and two days later I delivered three works to the Taubman Museum for an invitational show of south eastern artists, next week I have works in the opening of a new gallery back In Floyd.

How dose one keep up with the creative impulse?

I think this is a quandary for every artist. Ideas come at breakneck speed and there is no way to keep up and then there are those times when we have time on our hands and the creative well appears to be dry. Crazy making it can be, and if we can find our way through the maze and find moments of balance and be right there in the rhythm of the flow. This is what it’s all about becoming one with creation, being the creator and in the moment all is…so profoundly spectacular.

Penetration

2011-01-17T09:57:00.000-08:00

Penetration

For a man it’s a loaded word. He has been dealing with the idea all of his life. Most of the time the context is sex or fighting. We penetrate our opponent and we penetrate our mate. As simple as those two statements are we spend the majority of our lives tying to figure out how to be doing one or the other. Enormous amounts of energy focused on how best to conquer other men and as much energy focused on getting inside “our” women. We may seem like we have become peaceful loving caring men full of compassion, soft and safe, unchallenging and somewhat trusted by both men and women. But deep down in our balls a feeling wells up, a feeling so strong, so fertile and primal. It starts as an agitation, a questioning of our existence, a rumbling, a stirring, a force that anti feel drugs, obsessive sex, a new car and more stuff just wont quench. A fire is brewing inside that has to burn, it needs fuel as it is the life force of a man no longer able to fit within the cultural paradigm that smothers the flames of his life. He starts to feel this need, this desire, this primal urge to penetrate. But what? What is it that he is to enter that he can fill and be filled with? He has formed a trusted band of brothers by this time in his life and he speaks to them of this deep urge that must be acted on, he is a good man and dose not want to risk his job, his marriage his friendships or his life. In a quandary he searches his soul through quite time alone reading books by men that have pondered this in the past. In the quiet of his solitude and with support of his brothers he comes to terms and realizes the truth of a life of service. He comes to understand it is his nature to penetrate and to live full he must penetrate. He discovers his mission in life and he takes that mission as his strength his goal his purpose and he penetrates the world with it. He dose whatever it takes to live his mission of service, he discovers in this process allies begin to show up, synchronicity, coincidences and when challenges arise he is strong and sees them only as that and not to be defeated by them. A sense of energy runs through him, he’s excited to get up in the morning and he naturally takes good care of himself, sleeps soundly, eats organically and moves with vitality and purpose. He has penetrated his own life, he has penetrated through the veils of illusion, He can now penetrate with his warrior energy the injustices in the world hold men accountable for their actions, he penetrates the lies, deceit and inequalities. With compassion he understands the shadow and the immature unconscious pain that drives men to penetrate with organs and objects of destruction. He dose not let them off the hook with this compassion but holds them to the fire of accountability with love. He now can penetrate his woman, deeply and full, not only with his organ of primal desire and pleasure but with his love and fullness. He is present, open, vulnerable, a strong force of nature with out a need to control or dominate. He is filled with humor and lightness he laughs with his partner he cares about her and honors her deep feminine nature. The wisdom she carries he learns from, he is humbled by her strength and with deep respect he protects her gentle nature. As he grows old he grows ever wiser, he begins to discover a quiet peace that he can describe as nothing other then Zen. He is not afraid of his death, as he knows his life is rich and full. He ages with grace, knowing his body is nothing more than the beautiful vehicle used to travel through upon this earthwalk. He has taken the heroes journey through life and he is love realized.

photo: "Emergence" 2008 Riechmuth Park Sacramento CA.

2011-01-01T17:29:00.000-08:00

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.

essence of love?

2010-12-06T08:01:00.001-08:00

The darkness of winter nights grow long, a cold wind and it’s constant freight train like sound mixed with screeches and screams, creaks and moans, whistles in the trees calling out to any ear within range. Wind chill and blown snow, a layer of ice and a deep appreciation for my four walls and a roof, a stack of firewood, propane in the tank, food in the pantry and water flowing from the tap. With all such life support issues for the moment in order my mind begins to wander and I watch the first rays of the morning light as it shines forth through the trees and over the eastern horizon.

What is this? This relationship we all have with ourselves, with others, with life and with lovers. How is it that we come together, something within resonated and we feel the draw to connect, to become intimate, is it the desire to know oneness with what is outside our own existence. How is it that we find those or that in which we come into sacred contact with? Do we choose? And what is fear? The place I know inside that runs from what I am drawn to. Is it the fear of loosing self in the oneness, of the joining in and loosing the boundary of separation? As I sit and watch the sunrise and the trees hold the form and change from shape to color, I wonder, what is the space between the me and the tree, between you and me, between my thoughts and my body and me? A Zen circle, an open place, the desire to close the space. To connect, to feel skin upon skin, to join the yin and the yang of union, enter deep in body abandonment, allowing sexual, spiritual and loving union to take place. To accept the desire of divine motivation to experience the space between becoming joined and realizing the space between the emptiness that holds all of everything together is this essence of love?

I am in the state of winter. Cold and dark, inward and quiet, it is not easy at times and the patience of allowing nothing to be happening challenges my ideas of being full, warm, productive and outward. I am surrounded and protected in my own womb, the place to seek peace and enter dreams. At times I long for the warmth of another body in the darkness of the night, lips to kiss, a yoni to enter, the small of your back to pull up tight as I go deep within and feel the splendid wonder of orgasmic bliss that can permeate and join two bodies as one and together enter the universe. The guru said we are one and at the time I believed him and still there are times, deep in meditation, deep in the creative process and alone deep in nature, I Am That. And still my mind is not still; still enough to not slip back into the ego self that separates myself from all. Enters fear and doubt, judgment and shame then what if my fire wood supply…? What If? And What the Fuck? Then poof as bad as it could get, the worst that could happen, and it Is, it is all alright, reconnection is restored, compassion for self and all, remembering life dose come with an element of suffering and once again I breath a sigh of beauty, that moment of peace and returning to what just may be, back to the essence of love.

Lonely?

2010-09-29T04:59:00.000-07:00

My sister asked “do you get lonely out here”? I had to pause and ask my self, “Who is here to be lonely?” After three years or so, never been real good about keeping track of time, there is someone I know that I never really knew before. This is I, the personality I wake up with in the morning, and the one I argue with over what we should be doing or what we want to do. Who’s doing the dishes tonight, you better exercise, do your paperwork and so on. Sometimes we have such a great time walking in the woods, a glass of wine, a fabulous home cooked meal, a night in the studio creating with splendid jazz in the back ground. There maybe a psychological condition to this or perhaps it’s just a Gemini thing but there certainly seems like there is more then just the one living in this cabin. Do I want a partner, a real live other person to share this lifetime with? I have lived all my life thinking so and what that would look like and to a certain extent preparing for that other one to move in to this life. Now at fifty, single never married, having shared myself intimately with lovers I still love deeply and several have become my best friends. I just don’t know any longer what my fate of partnership looks like. No longer is the vision what it once was. No longer am I longing to create a nuclear family, Art has become my extension into the after life, my contribution to the future, the mark that I was here.

The question “do I get lonely?”…. The longer I am alive the richer my own company becomes. We have been together for so long now we have come to truly love each other, we accept our follies, agree to disagree, play and work together and we realize we are in this together for the entire journey, best to be best friends and enjoy the ride together.

There may just be room for another in this life and their other as well. A relationship is so much more than two people coming together. It is a community a village a family. What a fantastic relationship of group dynamics, to know who’s communicating with who, who wants what, who needs what and who can provide and who cannot.

I see an outside relationship as an extension of the inside one. A mirror to see myself, my many selves and I a reflection of the other and their many others. The difference in self-relationship and with another is the space between the distance is always there, always, no matter how close or far, it to be respected and to know that there is always a space between the us.

Am I lonely? Am I alone? There are times when the crows are my companion, it feels like love, I have love with my friends, my deep and intimate relationships are filled with love, the days that go by that I do not have contact with people seem to be filled with conversation with my very best friend and this I have come to realize is Love.

Alone at times, Yes, Lonely??? Yes at times, Solitary? Yes but not in confinement. Content? Very much So.

2010-07-31T06:10:00.000-07:00

Virginia, I’ve heard it said it’s the last stop before heaven. I wonder what color heaven would be. Virginia is green, green everywhere, I look over fields of grass into lush forests of hardwoods and pines all surrounded and engulfed in green. They say the heart chakra, is stimulated by green and I believe life gives us exactly what it is we need in every moment. If this is the case at this time in my life I need all this green energy surrounding me. I think I may be learning something about love. The more time I spend with myself by myself the more I get this sense of love all around. To whom is the relationship happening with? Is it I? Is it God? Is it the part of me that is watching the whole show, laughing at the antics, knowing the sweet compassion of my struggles and taking the deep breath of joy when I just relax into a moment? In the moments when I accept the not knowing and let go of the trying to figure it out, there is a point of eternity that it all is just…Is.

There is a sweet gentle rain falling this morning. It touches the poet inside and to honor him I will post a few poems that came through a couple mornings ago.

Sleepy morning eyes

Sleepy morning eyes.

The first cup of tea.

The first light of the day.

Sounds of birds waking, singing their morning songs.

Insects begin to buzz.

Cool air.

Delight in the first sun rays before the rise.

A stillness.

An awakening.

Peace.

Life still

at rest.

Feeling Morning

As I feel the morning.

Between the dream and the day

Cool air awakens my skin

Song birds touch my ears

Sweet warm tea on my lips

The smell of dew in the grass

Feeling morning.

A lover beside me

I notice a lover beside me.

In the crisp morning air.

In the bird songs.

In the sweetness of my earl grey.

In the lush greenery that surrounds me.

In the first morning light.

Next to me is a lover.

Inside me.

and I thought I was alone.

Ever Present.

The ever present sense of fear and doubt

Slipping into the shadows of love and gratitude

Awake in this moment

Only to be

Is plenty

Knowing all will be provided for

As all has

Always

In all ways

Peace and trust

Confidence

In the process of life

Oh the love

Oh the joy

Of simply being

Breath by breath.

Back in Floyd VA

2010-07-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

Back from California about three weeks plus and I’m sitting in the same chair I did way back when (the morning of Thanksgiving, sketchbook still open to the page). Quite the journey indeed, 10 days became 7 months, totally unexpected and I praise having the lifestyle that can change in such an instant. Well, awesome it was to sink into a major sculpture and be paid for it. Wow, during the project I was so on, loving every day starting at the gym working in the studio having deep connections of love and healing, I was on top of my game.

Then I finished the project..... Thought I was prepared for a slight dip but jeez did I go down. Realizing that I just built a 40,000 pound tombstone to honor the death of thousands of native peoples where genocide occurred during the gold rush and to the environment that is still dead from the white mans greed. This was all fine as it needed to be expressed, the piece has become a prayer wheel a healing circle and I am good even proud with all that. But down I went into self doubt, loneliness, grief, bewilderment, feeling for the Indian, feeling exposed I started smoking American spirit cigarettes and caught a habit. Forget the gym, work and the game I was on top of. The game all of a sudden seemed like a total farce and me just a player in something that meant nothing. Oh what self loathing I fell into. Managed to pull it together enough to throw myself a 50th birthday party a loving self act that manifested in so much realized love in return. Still in need of some deep healing it was time to return to the blue ridge mountains here in Floyd VA. Back in the woods, swimming in the fresh spring fed pond walking in the woods sometimes barefoot sometimes naked. Back into the nature that surrounds me, back into a primal place that touches my sole and reminds me as alone as I am in this world, I am alone with all. Got off the smokes got on the path of health, eating from the garden walking for miles doing my yoga, meditation, contemplation reading the good books and loving all the aspects this self I inhabit.

This path as an open sensitive man / artist has it's perks and it's valleys. I am grateful for the emotional width, I feel alive and I do feel solid and healthy enough to handle the ride on the swing set of my life. I have a place to channel it all, the physical presence of my sculpture can capture whatever it is that I am facing. Perhaps I am in deeper then I realize and I do feel I am in deep with some new self realizations that need time to be contemplated lived with bathed in and taken to heart. I love being back in my little paradise, so peaceful it is time in solitude and time in the studio. The creative muse has a hold on me, her energy of force is flowing. I have seven new sculptures in the works another couple right behind those and an inspiration that flows through me that energizes my body to do whatever it takes to work the work.

I am happy beyond my wildest dreams at times, alone at times I find a smile on my face. There are times I slip into "whats the point" and I know this as I have experienced the dark night of the soul, I know now I do not need nor want to know the point, it only brings me to suffer a question with no answer, I find peace in accepting the is is enough. So for now creating art takes me down a path that leads me to a my own bliss and brilliance and this is my gift both within and without. No real purpose or reason it just feels good and to the best of my knowledge I am not hurting anyone in the process.

Men Cry

2010-02-06T17:25:00.000-08:00

For a man to cry he must be empowered in his true masculine essence, he must know who he is and know that his strength can hold him face to face with anything the world can through at him. Once a man is solid in himself he can open to the deep pain of sadness, fear and shame he carries for being a part of the shadow patriarchal system that is bringing this beautiful feminine planet to the brink of death. We can cry for the loss of our fathers and the elders that once intended to initiate us into the sacred world of the masculine, we will cry for the loss of a powerful mother that stands in the divine feminine energy and nurtures us and opens her heart unconditionally. We cry for the lover we never have found that touches us deep and allows herself to be touched, opened and taken to the universal orgasm in witch we both let go and experience “God” coercing through juice of our life. In this place we can cry at a TV commercial that reminds us of this, nature can crack us open, knowing our mission in the world to be in our benevolent kingship and to fight for the health of the planet and for the protection of the women and children who depend upon our strength to do what needs to be done in a good way. Deep down we know what is missing and we grieve late at night when we are all alone or if we are lucky we sit in sacred circles with other men and share what is real, what hurts more then we want to admit and to know we are not alone. We can then cry, cry tears of joy to reconnect to our core, when we fully support one another rather than fight and try to out macho each other then we can open our hearts. Finely we can become sacred lovers, warriors, magicians and kings, we can merge with our sacred masculine with our beloved the divine feminine in realms beyond what only our distant ancestors knew as well as right here on the ground in which we stand. This is what will crack us open this is when you will see the flood of tears, snot and a wailing that will leave no doubt in your being that a man a true man can truly cry.

Away from home

2009-12-30T08:20:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since my blog has had any attention. I feel my life is a contrast of a guy that dose well when his life style has some consistency to it and a life that asks to be spontaneous and open to the moment. Well this time life asked for my moment. I left the mountain of Floyd Virginia back on Thanksgiving Day, drove to Ohio then flew to San Diego then to Sacramento and finally to Grass Valley Ca. This was all planed to be a three-week trek. Now I find I am living in my new little home and I will be here till May. Art has a way I have experienced to direct ones life to manifest itself with the artist as merely a tool to accomplish it’s existence. In this case, a public art project for the city of Grass Valley, Yes I was the one that put it on the drawing board and fought for it and is that tool of manifestation, at times I wonder if the creative is an entity of it’s own and carries the energy of potentiality that will find a host to be it’s tool to exist.

I really miss my mountain home in Floyd, my studio, my bird and animal friends and my human friends as well. I miss my lifestyle on the mountain, the walks in nature, the relationship I have with myself there. I have a sweet longing like being far from my lover with only memories to share in my private dwelling inside. I realize the blessing I have received to be commissioned to do a major piece of art to create something I believe to be a sacred and healing installation. I sit with gratitude for the trust the universe has in my ability to create an Art piece that will stand for generations. Do artist feel more alone then others, I have my love within and am loved in so many ways, this relationship with the creative or perhaps it is with the creator becomes the one I ultimately give my commitment to. At almost fifty years I have yet to give myself over to any one other then this creative process, so romantic and so alone. I can laugh and cry as I treasure this connection, I can be sad and mad, glad and full of fear at times. I question the purpose and I come back to the purpose is only in the journey and that is what keeps one step out in front of the other.

So why write a blog? Well it is one of those steps and something inside is drawn to express what it feels like to be this artful being and being human at the same time.

Men's Work

2009-11-20T05:28:00.000-08:00

Men’s work? What is it? I’m a construction type dude; I can build a house from the ground up. I make stuff, I fix stuff and as an artist, I’m no painter or flute player, I got that machismo thing going on, I’m a sculptor, working in reality, gravity, with dangerous tools, heavy objects, pretty manly stuff, the kind of work of a real man.

Well that’s not really what men’s work is in this new paradigm. Men’s work is still heavy and dirty, yucky and hard. Men’s work is digging around in our psyche, looking deep into what motivates us, what’s our goal, our mission in life. We as men have been, tweaked and manipulated, coerced into being a certain way of being. Often a cog in the machine of society and shamed into a reality that’s not natural for us. We have been domesticated and trained, we are held in the shackles of not knowing our true essence. We have tried so hard to be good boys and men and when we rebel we usually take it out on ourselves, our loved ones and on the earth. We are wounded, we are deeply hurt and injured, and we carry this pain in the fear, the anger, the sadness, the antidepressants, alcohol, food, sex, overwork, dangerous activities, self-loathing and suicide.

So what is men’s work? It’s getting in there, rooting around in our lives, getting a true view of what it is we are doing with our life. Excavating the dark shadows we carry and bringing them up to the surface, showing it to men we’ve formed bonds of trust with and exposing it to the light. It means spending time in solitude without all the distractions our culture inundates us with, It means learning what it is to be a mature man living in the body of pure and sacred masculinity, it’s forgiving our selves, our fathers our mothers our partners and taking responsibility for our entire life. It means learning how to love ourselves and to take care of our bodies our minds and our souls. To be a man and do men’s work is to relearn what the sacred masculine is and that it is here to protect the divine feminine and that means to protect and nurture the earth, the children and all that’s regenerative. It means to stand in our true power, to love deeply, to share the knowledge, to hold the vision of love, understanding, compassion and wisdom.

How is this work done? Every Man is his own teacher, every man has the answers inside, and every man leads his own life in the direction he chooses. How do I choose to do men’s work? I have formed a band of brothers and I sit in a sacred circle every week with them. This is a place it is safe for me to expose the truth of what I am discovering about myself. This is where I hear the truth of other men; this is where I no longer feel alone in my own psyche. I expose my shadow to the light with men doing the same, these men are my brothers not my friends nor my family, these men truly have my back covered, they will fiercely call me when I am out of integrity, they will let me cry and not fix me nor shame me, they will care for me and they know that I am my own best guide. These men will be there for me until I die, they will be the ones lowering my casket or spreading my ashes they will speak at my eulogy, they will comfort my family and those that are pained by my passing. This circle of men has seen me in my darkest hour and they have seen my rise and they are witnessing the enlightenment of my life.

The Joy of being a man is a wonderful state of being, I will not take it for granted, I have a mission to evolve as a man to care for my planet and all that inhabit this glorious place in our little corner of the universe. I invite any man that is longing for deep connection to his divine soul and open to doing men’s work to join me in this circle of men and to explore together as men what it is to live in true sacred masculinity. Together doing men’s work we will change this world for the better, one man at a time.

The Image is "The King" 34"x34" from my Archetype Series

Revelation on the Mountain

2009-11-13T04:49:00.000-08:00

They say if one is determined to reach self-understanding and eventual enlightenment then situate one’s self on a mountaintop and the answer will come from within. Well two and a half years later, I think I got it. Of course I don’t whenever I think but fortunately I get lost enough in my art process that I can actually forget to think for a moment. Only then dose it all seem to be right in the world, the suffering the heart ache the wars and the destruction of the planet, for that very moment I can accept it all and it’s just all ok. In that moment it becomes a good day to die, no more fear of loss no more clinging to all the stuff of this world. How long dose it last? Just a split second and that second is eternity, how is that that flash of eternity doesn’t last but the moment, ah time that convenient illusion that plugs me into all my fellow travelers.

Oh so back to the revelation. So in the state of bliss and eternity, I finally realize what the universe is. I’m ready to start a church, order the garb, write the IRS and get my tax-exempt status, oh god it’s so good to finally understand. I am somewhat reluctant to let it be known as so many profits and visionaries before, always someone will see me as false others will ask for proof and, well it’s just a big responsibility to let such profound knowledge out to the mass’s of the three of you maybe less that read my blog. Last week it was the sound of a mushroom snore, this week are you ready. Yes this is it… the Universe, step aside Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan and let me tell you this is for real.

The Universe is Plaid…. Yes, take a moment and breath it in; let go of judgment and all you thought you knew, yes I am here to tell you well, I don’t think the obvious needs to be repeated. Yes for me also as soon as it was known it all made such perfect sense. Explains everything doesn’t it. Plaid in every direction imaginable layer upon layer infinite depth of plaid, every angle, inside or outside it’s all you know it, it’s all plaid. I have sat with this for a day and it is still the truth, I see these mountain people have known this all along. I guess after generations of living up here close to God they have seen his garb and that’s why all the good ol boys always adorn those shirts of plaid. Now I have come to realize that the fashion statement of the season is yes, Plaid a statement that our entire planet is coming into a state of spontaneous enlightenment.

So I’m sure the next question is what to do with such knowledge back in these hills and hollers in a town like Floyd up in the Appalachians of rural Virginia. Well it seems pretty darn obvious to me, it’s time to start up a church. Reverend Kurt the one with the revelation that made sense of it all. Gunna get me a robe and some cool preacher duds, of coarse all in plaid I'm so excited! Once I get that tax break and all the donations, gunna build me a big ol fancy church and yes I’ll paint it plaid. We’ll have a glorious garden planted in intersecting perpendicular lines of delicacies and flowering beauty and get this, this is the cool part every one that joins the church will get to purchase these very cool glasses that make every thing visual in plaid. So don’t be surprised even without the glasses you may start noticing Plaid every where you look, it’s ok, I was never a big fan of Plaid either nor God for that manner but ya know some things just are and can’t be denied forever. Forever Plaid.

Morning on the Mountain

2009-11-06T05:45:00.000-08:00

I love mornings, I like to get up sit in my favorite char sip my tea and watch the light shift from dark to light. I like to be up before the birds and listen for the first song. It’s always different. Sometimes the first chirp is heard and everyone joins in instantly, this morning I heard the first song and it was a good five minutes before the next, a crow joined in and slowly the chorus started coming alive. Do birds like to sleep in sometimes and other times they have an early agenda? This is what I like about the mornings there is time to dwell on such musings. Yesterday walking from the cabin to the studio, I was stopped by the sound of the bird wings as they darted across the yard from the pines to the kiwi vine, into the hardwoods and back, such skilled flyers, I was in total Ah, mesmerized by the force of life in flight. I just stood there spellbound, something profound in the simplicity of such a moment.

I am so grateful to wake up in the morning for the obvious reason that I am blessed to witness another moment of life and all the wondrous mysteries to unfold in another day. The other reason is waking means I was asleep. My health curse of the past five years has been insomnia. Oh God I asked, him / she / it, the devil and the angels for help pleading in the wee hours of the morning to please give at least a couple hours of some nocturnal death. What a journey, nights of hell, tossing and turning, flipping and yearning, screaming and crying, oh it was bad. Days of exhaustion after nights with out a single wink of sleep. I was getting rather whacked, memory was slipping, conversations just to difficult to maintain, an added level of danger to be a woodworker using machines devised secondarily for removing fingers, driving from California to Virginia spacing at seventy and the worst part, being so tired and the stress of fearing going to bed and facing another eight hours in hellsville of the mind. It was sucking me dry and I was scared for my sanity and everything I held dear. So like any health crisis it has taken a toll, I am in recovery not a hundred percent but thank God I wake up in the morning and I am so grateful for every hour of sleep, oh how I love, respect, honor and cherish my sleep.

It’s all in the mind this crazy restless never wanting to stop mind. Seeking to squeeze every morsel of every moment out of life, this ol mind of mine never seems to realize that enough really is plenty. So I try to slow it all down, the walks in the woods, being alone and my three saviors Art, Nature and Prayer really do work to help me in recognizing peace and at the end of the day to slip into slumber in a pleasant state of completion. Like every life mine is called upon to perform and show up out in the world of humanity. Oh what humanity is out there this week it was meetings and conversations with gallery owners, art reps, a developer of sustainable real estate, a reporter, several artists, a marketing agent, my men’s group, an art critic, a couple studio visits, two lunches and a dinner, a final and painful ending, correspondence, call to mom, my journal entries to dad on the other side, still dwelling on the sense that I was shot in the chest during the civil war (more on that in another blog) negotiating a public art project, comforting a dying friend, dinner with a best friend, and it go’s on. It’s all so good and so rich but jeez it just leaves me reeling in a swirl of human energy as each and everyone of those interactions need to get processed, filed, prioritized, evaluated, followed up with. I have these sculptures to create, chisels to sharpen, paintings to paint, shows coming up and woodworking projects to complete and the dang cabin to winterize. All in a week of a life, is this the way to be? Well in the center, in the core of it all, I do sense a calm and that calm takes this soul and walks it back out in the woods follows a deer trail, silence takes over the chatter of the mind and becomes the chatter of the birds the rustling leaves the snorts of deer and perhaps one day, this mind will be quiet and I’ll hear the sound of a mushroom snore.

Sweet Dreams

Nature's a Mess?

2009-10-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

The crows are in the pine forest, having a frenzied morning breakfast. Dozens of the black winged ones tearing up the rich smooth carpet of pine needles in a dazzling display of ruckus chaotic energy. Something so wild, I know what it is to be in the center of that noise and mayhem. In the midst of it all I sense a calm, even for the six legged ones being unveiled from the dark safe place nestled in the forest floor being plucked and eaten. I sense a peace within the nourishment and death of the moment. I notice a willingness in nature to give to the great cause. To eat and be eaten, to birth and to compost, it all seems just and honorable to die as it is to be born. This time of year with the fall and the long cold winter approaching, I have noticed a deer giving the gift of her self over to me. Usually the deer are so aware and shy, running away at the site or sound of me walking through the woods. But each year one deer just stands there, her side facing me allowing me to get within rock throwing distance, it seems as though she is giving herself to me so I may have her to sustain this life through another winter. As my food still comes from the garden or the market, I choose to speak to her, thank her for the offering, she walks off somewhat bewildered that her gift was not accepted. I walk off feeling blessed deep down in the primal place that still resides at my core.

Today as I walked in the woods I was really stuck by how messed up nature is. It’s not like the city parks of my youth when the economy allowed for all the trees to be perfectly groomed and trimmed, paths cleared and nature as the perfect vision of health. In this pine forest that I walk all these trees are so randomly placed, all the fallen ones scattered every which way no rhyme nor reason to any of it the only paths are where the deer walk and their so much shorter then I, I have to walk stooped over much of the time. Spider webs face high, climbing over fallen trees, slipping in the wet leaves, poison ivy, dangerous mushrooms why is this mess seem so right? I used to marvel at the perfect carpet of pine needles woven into an immaculate smooth pristine floor that my eyes just loved the order and perfection of. Then those crows came in and totally messed the one perfect thing that this part of the forest had to offer. Then walking into the hardwood forest with immense verities of trees leaning and twisting all vying for their best shot at the god they worship, the sun. Fallen trees broken trees rotting and diseased trees vines of poison ivy, Virginia creeper and wild grape larger then my arm climbing a hundred feet or more, winding their way up, I assume in search of the very same god to worship. Hardly ever do I come across a tree that looks perfect, healthy straight and not in competition with its neighbor.

As messed up as nature seems to be, it’s hard for me to say that there is something wrong with it. I for some reason think that nature must be perfect even if I can’t see it. The mere fact that nature exists conjures up a belief that it must be flawless. So why is it so difficult for me to take that same belief into human nature. Why is it I am so totally unforgiving, judgmental and down right cynical of what it is to be human. I do believe I am nature I can even prescribe to the idea we are all one. I just have such a hard time with the way we often treat each other, the land, the water and the air. Could it all be in perfect balance, like the over populated herd of deer that die off to find balance in their numbers, could we just simply be living in the creative perfection. If my art has taught me anything it is to trust the creative process, it is an unstoppable beautiful energy even when it appears to be ugly. I find some peace in the choice to trust and search for the acceptance of all that is. And like that Indian in the 1960’s TV commercial, I will look at our earth with an open heart and allow the tear of care to drop from my cheek.

Wind Chill on the Mountain

2009-10-25T10:47:00.000-07:00

As I enter my third winter on this mountain in Floyd Virginia. I am well aware that this is the season of the wind. It blows virtually constant in the winter months. Today it’s a warm wind and the leaves fall skyward like flocks of birds but in chaotic discourse, together released and each individual finding it’s own path to ultimate rest and compost through another season. This wind is a constant reminder of what’s really in charge here. Like water there is no stopping it, it moves at it’s own whim, I see personality in it, I fought it the first year, screamed at it, wrestled with it, hated it and cursed it. It took my shopping list away it took my hat and returned every emotion I gave it. Humbling this wind is. I have learned to respect it and it has returned the favor. Last year when I was deep in the dark night of my soul’s journey, hurting deep down in my core, it was that harsh wind that soothed my pain. Walking in the wind, tears streaming from my eyes, it was the wind that cleansed my soul. As difficult as the time was as tortured as I felt it was the constant companionship of the wind that carried the pain off as prayers into the wilds of where it is that the wind goes.

I grew up with a wind. There is a southern California wind called the Santana or the Santa Ana it’s a full blown big wind that comes from the east off the desert. Dry as a bone it parches the already dry landscape and with it comes the wildfires. They destroy everything in their path, flames rising well above tree lines houses bursting into memories, spectacular sunsets within the choking smoke and the falling ash. All this comes back deep in my experience as the now gusting Floydian wind assaults the loose corner of my metal roof. I can feel that sense of primal fear that knows if nature wants to take me down, I’m hers for the taking.

Ah, that primal fear the one that’s seems so real, as real as speaking in public as real as being attacked by a cave bear. Something about the humbling gut wrenching knot that tells us something needs to happen and it needs to happen now! Around the globe I sense we are all feeling that primal fear for existence, that fear that warns we are in danger and something needs to change now! We can’t buy our way out any longer, we’re out of money, and addictions of avoidance are beginning to loose their effect to distract us from the reality that is. The message is clear do we want to preserve life in this state or let it go in one final party of extravagance and individual separation. Perhaps just perhaps it is a good time to take a deeper look at what it is that sustains us, see if there might be some sense of joy in living in a world of clean air, water, food, basic shelter and health. Perhaps there could be happiness in the simplicity of existence rather than a life of extremes, excess and the constant want of more.

Perhaps this is all too simple coming from a simple Man choosing to be an artist in this world, or perhaps it is as simple as just living simply. Listening to our fear may be the first step into listening to our truest nature and as nature we know how to survive and in survival we can once again know true joy.

It's winter now

2009-10-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

It’s winter now. The woodstove is sustaining life in the comfort zone. Bloging in the winter, sitting in the cabin late on a Saturday night. What’s a man nearly fifty an artist with no wife or family doing? Neither dog nor cat, is he lonely? Not really. Isolated? No, just having a solo experience. Some how or for some why I think this is good for me, that living like this is bringing me closer to God or the oneness I have been seeking longer than I’ve known I’ve been on a search. Tonight I feel as though I am in love, I have that teary, deep tender well in my heart, it feels like an opening. To who or what I wonder? The cold walk in the woods today found me with a smile that came from no thought, just the beauty of trees light shadow and color. I feel sad and tremendous gratitude at the same time. The sadness dose not have a reason behind it and the gratitude is coming from the same place. I have such gratitude to be and such sadness in my being.

Days go by between writings and all seems to change or at least shape shift in the perception of this so-called reality. I find my self again contemplating what this art that comes through me may actually be about. I am not a schooled artist so art speak is not my way of conveying what maybe the underlying motive. I am here deep in a nature preserve the world has not discovered / destroyed this little heaven on earth. I can still get lost walking from the studio back to the cabin in the dark. The dark so black I can only feel my way, the last tenant almost died one night lost in the blizzard disoriented and if not for his dog probably would have froze to his death that night. Different then I grew up in the milds of southern California, abundant streetlights, only the brightest of stars to be seen and most people searching for them on the movie and TV screens. Light, we are like moths always looking for the light, whether above or within and these days mostly in or on a screen. Like the shape of the earth, it was once said to be flat, we proved it to be round-ish and now it’s flat once again, safe and flat on that light filled screen.

So what is it I am doing here? Searching for meaning, reconnecting to my primal source of being. Finding something old and connected in the wilds of nature. I haul home rocks and branches, leaves and bark, the treasures of the woods, only there it is compost, the most precious material next to life. It’s all life and death out there, which constantly reminds me it’s all life and death in here as well.

Morning on the Mountain

2009-10-12T06:09:00.000-07:00

There is something about sitting on a hale bale with the warmth of the morning sun warming the chest, A good cup of tea, views all around and a cemetery in the distance to keep it all in a perspective of impermanence. In this moment the question arises, what needs to be improved? I spend much of my life trying to make it better, better then what? Than this? Even when it seems so hard the hale bale just rots away in the field or becomes feed to the livestock, the cemetery plots with corps’s rotting as well feeding the continuum. It’s all alright I remind myself, nothing to improve nothing to solve, just to take it in, experience the moment and let it be.

There is something about sitting in a cabin on a blustery, cloudy day with the cold of winter approaching. The death of summer celebrated in the fires of reds gold’s oranges and the yellow leaves that surround, falling in their final act in the cycle of life and composted death. I am still saddened by endings; I have yet to fully grasp the concept that death is not loss, just a birth into something new. Relationships have ended, fathers have died, dreams have passed unmanifested and life just continues on, like a river, swirling thorough obstructions, slowing down, speeding up but never ceasing to flow continuously towards the sea of renewal.

Today my first east coast solo sculpture show dies. Today is take down day. It’s been a good show, some say the best this gallery has ever housed. This space and this show of art will never be again. Today the shift from the grandiosity of pedestals, track lighting, newspaper articles, radio interviews, videos, guestbook’s, receptions and ceremonies, to crates and bubble wrap, moving pads, packing of the trailer, loading the van, clamping the Burden Boat to the roof rack with hopes of no rain, all to find storage in hallways and bathrooms, high places in the studio and any nitch that has space for another sculpture. This is where trust in the material world and Art collide. Twenty-one rather ambitious sculptures a show created over two solid years plus works dating back nearly fourteen years, a big manifestation of physical labor, creative energy and time investment. The payoff ??? Well visitors to the gallery loved it, absolutely zero sales, a perverse satisfaction of taking on the universe and saying to it’s face “I showed up” and I’m back in the studio excited by the new works for the next show in January. I know in the soul of my being this is my mission now in life to make these objects, I do not really no why but something so alive happens during the process of making that just tells me so. I do trust, I trust the funding will arrive to keep this going, it always has and it always will. The rent is paid the firewood is stacked and the winter survival nuts are stored at least long enough to manifest the next show. Ah trust what a ride.

Home on this Mountain

2009-10-09T04:48:00.000-07:00

Home again after a day in the outside realms of my little art world. Today was the day of “The Burden Boat Ceremony”, today all the burdens people laid down in the boat in the form of paper notes where burned as a ceremonial release. The ritual was beautiful the fire, awesome and the burden bags that hung over the boat to contain the energy where released as the fire burned through the strings and the bags fell into the earth to be buried in the ground in which they originated. This was a cremation a release and a burial of our individual burdens, I see every individual burden released as one less collective burden we all have to carry. Some art pieces have the potential to change the artist, this one has that, and will he allow it? Time will tell.

It’s been a couple days since the happening and much has settled into the past and the new version of the present is here. Today it’s a sunrise, the first light blazing pink in the cloud covered ceiling of a passing storm. Steam off a teacup and an open wondering what today may bring. There’s a fine line between allowing and directing. This life shows up as it dose, by directing intention it has a certain perception of continuity to a vision laid out ahead. Studio vs. Office? Two spaces one goal, such different energies and both necessary to achieve the intention to create as much art in this little lifetime as possible.

At times it feels like if I can just hang in there another day a month or a year I just might get through this life as an artist all the way to the end. What’s the point? Bring a little beauty, a bit of healing, perhaps some joy and a few tears, why not? I am convinced the universe wants creativity to happen. As I perceive it, when art is truly flowing through, the support is there the check arrives, time opens up and all seems right including the suffering and the joy.

Another morning and the crows wake me with their ritual gathering outside my door. First light, between day and night, between dream state and waking state, one seems no more or less real these days than the other. I was pleased to wake up feeling well today as I had Molina mushrooms for dinner last night. They like to grow under an old fallen oak tree. I never ate Molina’s before but I’ve heard they don’t agree with everyone, apparently they did with me and God did they taste delicious. Something about eating and drinking what originates on this property feels like I am and this land are morphing into one being.

The sun is rising as the moon is setting and another day here on the mountain begins to unfold revealing another speck of a grand mystery.

Friday in Floyd

2009-10-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

So here I am, this artist / seeker of a meaningful life in the mountains of southwestern Virginia near a town called Floyd. Tonight is first Friday, night of the gallery openings and the Friday night jamboree that has been going on every Friday for some hundred plus years.

The town is packed with tourists, hippies and their offspring, the old timers down from the hills up from the hollers, moonshine still in their vanes and on their breath.

It’s the real deal here, these mountain musicians have played on the porches as youngens with there grand folks for generations. I gotta hand it to these folks there is a soul that is so deep and rich and it pours right out of those fingers and tongues in the form of heart felt mountain music.

Back a little further where my cabin sits, I have some neighbors down towards the river, I’ll call them Dig and Chi. Chi doesn’t wear shoes, doesn’t believe in them, lives close to the land, real close, grows or finds or catches his food makes candles for light, his fridge is a dug out room in the side of the hill, smart as all get out. Eyes as soft as a dear, a heart of gold with a fierce perspective of the human rat race. Dig well, he found me changing my flat tire yesterday asked if I needed a hand. I said I had the spare on and was taking the flat into town to get it fixed, he said “up here on the mountain by golly we fix em ourselves” and sure enough he grabbed his tools and gave me a couple of his hours and fixed that flat, no charge just the neighborly thing to do.

It gets pretty windy up here and there’s allot of trees. Today I actually saw an old pine tree fall and yes it did make a sound a starteling one at that. I’m always greatful when they don’t fall on my cabin as that would change my reality in a hurry. Back in Northern California when people heard I was a sculptor and worked in wood they would ask if I make those bears and dolphins, the ones that the amazing freewheeling chainsaw artist do. Well that’s not me in fact I never used a chainsaw until I landed here. Now I cut fallen trees out of the road or off the paths and wonder what my bear might be like. That tool opens up a whole forest full of potential. Yes! The power of steel and gas mixes well with my testosterone.

I like my solitude out here, I like that I see no other light at night other then the stars and the moon, the sounds are of animals mostly insects, I like the taste of the water the scent of the air and most my food is grown within a few miles or in my front yard. It was a good summer for mushrooms many meals found on my daily walks in the woods. Dig’s been showing me a bit of what’s eatable out there, I trust him most of the time but not all the time, that’s what I’m learning out here trust is good but blind trust can kill ya.

It used to be lonely real lonely, making friends with the insects kind of lonely. That was this time last year, something shifted and when loneliness became solitude, I found I was actually enjoying the time alone. My friendships with the bugs have sustained and do my best not to kill any of my friends. I am always honored when the bigger mammal types or the feathered ones show up to give me a view of their beautiful beingness.

Well it’s time for dreamtime it’s my form of relaxed visual entertainment, no TV up hear on the mountain just that fantastic inside screen with a profoundly mysterious projectionist.

introduction

2009-10-01T03:22:00.000-07:00

So now I have a blog on my hands, what to do with it? Write what’s up in this little but overflowing noggin of mine. As if I needed another ball to juggle but in the realm of the constant search for new ways of testing the creative process, I say what the heck, it gets me to the warmth of my desk space on the cold winter nights that are already here in Floyd Va.

A little introduction of my self to myself as I am my only reader I know of. A product of the 50’s but rose in the 60’s, my culture was trying to form me into another cog in the wheel of the societal life. A factory school churning us kids out in the southern California bliss of sunshine and easy living, suburban homes of safety and neighborhood barbeques, middle class white families all doing just “fine”. Something just didn’t take, I wasn’t applying myself to this reality, academically I wasn’t with the program those perfect families around me were filled with dysfunction and the paradigm was not working for this little innocent boy that had some wisdom and street sense that made up for that academic lack. I went along with the program on the surface (don’t make waves) but inside life retained wonder and mystery, I loved to make stuff and listen to music, play and frolic, well that kept me sane and brought me to this day.

Today I live in this rural place they call Floyd, it sits in the Blueridge mountains of Virginia, I’m nestled in a little cabin with hundreds of acres around me, my sculpture studio a garden and mountain characters as colorful as the autumn that is now coming on.

I landed here two years ago, I’m Californian, born raised and all my life, I love it but it was time to plop myself in a new enviroment and see what would happen. Well it’s been a journey for sure. I make my art walk in the woods and spend allot of time just being.

So what’s the intention here? To share this little perception of life from the viewpoint of a man who is living on his own edge, making art watching this crazy world from more the inside than out. To laugh and cry, to bitch moan and celebrate, to get down to the heart of the matter opposed to all that head stuff that never seemed to answer a thing for me any how.