Artist statement

Created in March 2012. If pictures aren’t good for you, scroll down for the proverbial thousand words (or in this case: just under three hundred words).

Transcript

(I)

What is the goal of life?

To be happy? No, because sometimes it’s not possible, and then where does that leave us?  (Happiness is important, though!)

The goal is to live.

(To exist, as yourself, as fully as possible.)

This doesn’t mean clinging to ego, but accepting this physical existence as unique and unrepeatable.

(II)

What is the purpose of art?

To reflect life in its infinite individuality —

in its infinite, resonant similarity —

to be simultaneously more vivid than life,

and yet so colorless by comparison

that we always return to the real thing.

(III)

What is the role of the artist?

To make the best art? No!

To develop the most complete, original expression of your experience.

Note: this is a process, whereas the other is an end product.

The actual artistic outputs are just by-products of the artist’s goal.

The important part is the process.

(IV)

What is my mission as an artist?

To live fully —

to leave a record of my experience —

to translate the entirety of my living into my own language, my own form, my own expression —

to rewrite the world.

And to encourage and inspire others to do the same.

(V)

Why?

There is no world but what we dream, each of us, individually.

When we die, our world dies with us.

It’s the same reason I used to study history.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it.” — Martha Graham

I fight that loss, for myself and for everyone.