The purpose of my writing is to help people live; for people to discover the beauty in their lives and know trauma can be accepted. To show myself and the world that loving is possible and we can move through our lives in a consistent recalibration of our peace and accept that eternal dance. My art, following in the direction of many before me, attempts to examine my entire life thoroughly; utilizing letters to describe the effect the life I have lived has had on me. My intention is never for a million people to read my work, but if my writings can prevent someone from jumping off a bridge then I am an artist. If we can capture the mosaic quality of our lives then we can accept its complexity; our love and our trauma, the good and evil of our lives, freedom and time, mortality and the present moment then we can create art that allows us to live with a deeper understanding.  Writing, for me, is taking a step back and having a look at the mosaic, and dissecting my personality; if I can look into my own life then I can develop compassion and empathy for other lives as well. There are so many things we use to get by in the world, and many only aid in our delusion and confusion, so if my art can express that I suffer the same delusions and confusions then progress is being made. From crystals, tantra, celibacy, fasting from food and speech, wealth, writing, yoga, astrology, God, conspiracies, herbs, college degrees everyone is attempting to survive the world. We are not alone in our attempts to free ourselves from pain, or despair, or all the parts of our lives we hope will not surface. Art creates an internal silence and an external statement saying we will not be silenced; allowing us to acknowledge our ability to examine ourselves and then speak. All those things we use to survive sometimes we fail to count on ourselves. 

We must regain the mysticism of our lives; acknowledging the beauty of the trees and giving our environments a mythic quality. With the rise in capitalism trees went from a ladder between the physical and spiritual world to, like us, a means of production and expansion. And, maybe, we had to destroy our myths so we could destroy the world; we probably wouldn’t have allowed ourselves to disregard nature if we maintained a mythic relationship to the world around us. My role seems to be an appreciation for life, an appreciation of all that happens within and outside of reason. A celebration of both temporality and eternity; we can give respect and acknowledgement back to the world around us. Maybe we must impose a meaning for living, or maybe we can unearth the buried meaning of existence; however, the responsibility of the artist is to bring humanity closer to humanity. We do very evil things and very good things; the world will never become the garden of Eden, but if man can accept his evil nature then we can use it more appropriately. We can learn to reveal ourselves through our lives by accepting the totality of our nature; we can love deeper, become more compassionate, and move through the world with less shame and rage. Art has played that role in my life; watching people lay their lives on a canvas or a piece of paper continues to be a revelatory experience. Like Lorraine Hansberry, “I wish to live”, and the only way I can live is by embracing the world; we can not have the world without misery, greed, and malice. Art is the faith to go one’s own way, and the choice isn’t always easy, but demands your entire cooperation. Freedom brings loneliness, but it also brings freedom.

Every aspect of our lives is a constant sculpting of the people we are to become and the people we are becoming, and if we can be completely honest then we can create art. Nothing today is more difficult than honesty, the desire to be perfect or appear to be put together is driving our anxieties further and further away from ourselves.The responsibility is now to explore the depths of supreme meaning and make it possible for ourselves to live in the world. The artist creates his own definitions by digging into the treasure trove of love, fears, hopes, memories, anxieties, and everything that makes us alive. Underneath the constant readjustments, the loneliness, the unfulfillment rest an opportunity to embrace ourselves through sickness and health. Art is the minister for our marriage to life.