WHY CREATE?
Miles Davis said that an artist’s first obligation is to himself. I think deep down that under that stone faced cool is a man who wanted to be accepted.
I create for acceptance
I create for my ego
I create because it consumes my attention
I create for my own immortality
I create for the celebration of my species
I create because I can
I create to archive myself
I create so I can take a victory lap
I create because life depends upon it but creating is not my life. Life is my life.
I create because a work of art is a done deal. When I finish a piece I know what I’ve got. When it’s done my fear of the unfamiliar is gone. This is quite a bit different than performance. Performance is in the moment, for the moment, charged with anxiety and uncertainty.
I can step away from a work of art and evaluate and compose in my own time. When it works, the finished creation is a resting snapshot of my incorrigible, frenetic, mistake making soul.
Only I am to blame for my creations.
I once heard Joni Mitchell when asked for a request say that you never heard anyone say to Van Gogh “Hey man….Paint Starry Night again”.
I create so I can improve, evolve and testify.
I create for context: I use familiar symbols to create themes as a way of creating a mental landscape. Then I function as an intermediary or editor working with the interaction of these elements to compose, seek, and find beauty. If clarity emerges from the symbolic relationships, a creation happens.
I create for this clarity….To see myself.
I create because I’m not a priest or a psychotherapist.
I create to be primal and I create to advance.
I operate in an area of uncertainty and my works often drive me nuts, but some of my favorite results have been the ones most problematic.
I create because I love where I live. Miami is a playground of symbolic visual language. There is no end to the influences from the tropical flora, to the architecture, to the Euro, Latin, and Caribbean experiences. As my senses are continually bombarded with all this, I find new symbols and comingle them with my original archetypes. The work is always alive in this setting. As an artist here I am fortunate to process the rich humanity that makes up this place. I thrive on diversity and cultural interfaces and I urge all who view my art to do so with this in mind.
UPDATE IRELAND:
We have since moved to the remote and savage Southwest coast of Ireland and I am now drawing from the beauty and history of this area. The land compels me to work in sculpture that results in a blend of modern abstraction with a regard for the regions megalithic past. It is a welcoming place with a fresh diversity that leads to surprising influences and the music results in sounds of a reinvented life.
We are immersed in and surrounded by natural beauty that makes us grateful daily.