Pictures from the Edges of America

It is impossible for me to make an artists’ statement without telling my story.  My young life was something like a nightmare and it was not surprising that I turned to art as a sanctuary.  I ran away to NYC, slept in bus stations, got arrested half a dozen times and dropped out of high school before finishing the tenth grade.  I was desperate and alone, but I had my art.    

I had my first son at twenty and everything changed.  It changed for the better.  I began to somewhat control my self-destructive tendencies and became a reasonably normal adult American.  But, somewhere in the process, I lost my art.  For twenty years I did not write or paint.  I did not even notice it all slipping away.

I recently spent many years working on the road (I am a chemist now), living in hotel rooms, mostly California.  California is the last chance for so many broken people, people like me.  It is like they just start walking until there is an ocean that stops them.  Being confronted with that imagery day-in and day-out changed me.  I became inspired and the art returned to my life.  I could see the beauty in the honest despair of a homeless woman when everyone around me could only see the ugly.  I remembered what it felt like to be hungry and without a place to sleep.  I felt an overwhelming urge to paint.

The way I look at art is very simple - there is the truth and then there is the lie.  The truth is always a good photograph and the lie, regardless of how attractive it may be, is bad art.  I try to show the hidden beauty of people alone and suffering or on a journey.  I try to tell their stories. 

Biochemically I am still not quite right and it pushes me to isolate myself.  And when you are alone and a little odd, you are an easy target.  My life has not been fun in that regard.  But the individual has one weapon against the mob - art.  Art celebrates the individual, his uniqueness and eccentricities.  Movies and books and paintings never tell the story of the mob, always the person.  That is why I love art.  I will always strive to tell the story of the person alone in the world.

I would appreciate any feedback, positive or negative."for the truth is the truth, until the end of reckoning"

                        - William Shakespear