ART

Texas Thunderstorm, acrylic 48" x 32"
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The Studio

How I ended up outside the Mainstream

For years I was involved in the computer industry as an expert in the realm of design and usability.  As such, I constantly searched for the right term to describe what I did.  You know what I mean - that magical elevator phrase which captured the essence of my work but coated the pill in such a way as to make it palatable to the majority of people who had not a CLUE about what an "application" was when used as a noun and not a verb.  As in "The application is runs fine as long as I reboot once an hour." 

My self-descriptive title shifted over the years, changing with corresponding scope changes in my work.  Usability Engineer, Information Architect, Information Designer, Information Wizard, etc.  You get the idea.  A change of title didn't make the pill of Corporate life any sweeter, though.

Korporate Amerika very decidedly drove me over the edge of the Sanity Sea, and it took time to recover. 

Fast forward ten years, and I happily found art as a means of expressing my ragged soul.  I began pursuing my Muse full-time, quietly and somewhat hesitantly assuming the Mantle of "Artist."  Calling oneself "Artist" is much akin to assuming the moniker "Shaman."  A bit egotistical, and perhaps a temptation to the Fates to thwart all future artistic endeavors.   But about art I am somewhat fearless..or is it just that I have a solid reserve of compassion for myself?  Either way, I try things artistic without concern for failure.  I always figure the worst thing that can happen is I have to start over.  So what?  Even if a particular piece turns out FABulously, you still have to start over for your next piece, right?  So no big deal...

Nonetheless, It's one thing to have others say you're an Artist, quite another to tell the world you're one without ever having been externally labeled so.  Knowing that there are a fair number of people in my life who have told others - in my presence  - that I'm an "Artist," and who have also told ME that I'm an Artist, I have am at last truly comfortable with the term as a partial description of me.  After all, as John Lennon said, "You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are.  You are what you are."

How to describe my artistic expression?  There are a number of signposts I can provide along the way, but most of the work must simply speak for itself.  You'll find everything from the whimsical to a depiction of a heavy heart throughout, though the darker side is usually limited to my poetry.  I have often been counciled to "find a style and stick with it," but alas, that is not my way.  Neither was it Picasso's, btw, nor many other so-called "important" artists.  Andy Warhol had a style, and so do Roy Lichtenstein and Leroy Neiman, but in spite of their tremendous financial successes, I'd rather not follow their lead.  It's not that I mind being widely popular, or even that I necessarily think their work is dreck.  Simply put, I would feel limited were I to attempt a single style or material or technique with my artwork.  Not to mention my ADD-borne inability to focus on any ONE thing for very long.

I indulge my Muse in a myriad of ways - writing, watercolours, oils, acrylics, pastels, pencil, various clays, photography, wood, metal, plastic, LOTS of found items (one friend says I can't get out of a car without finding something on the ground), and of course textiles.

Like a fish on a big hook, I struggle fairly constantly against myself.  It's the same crap with which all other artists throughout time have struggled, I know that.  In this case, the Knowing doesn't help.  There is this huge bubble of amazing stuff inside me that I keep trying to express - sometimes express as a verb, not an adverb...you know, as in extrusion.  Like Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstopper machine, a mysterious series of wheezes and groans and whistles under a silken tarp accompanies my creative flow.