Every so often a real pearl of wisdom drops between my ears and makes itself known.  This, from the sound of it, may not be one of them.  But on further consideration...

"BETTER IS BETTER".  Okay, it don't look like this mare's gonna win the derby, but think about it.  We are raised to achieve greatness.  Our parents and teachers fill our heads with dollops like, "Unless you win, you're a loser" and "Practice makes perfect".  Or my favorite, "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."  What's this message tell us?  It says that we need to be perfect in order to be acceptable.  Well, personally, I only know of one guy who was labeled as perfect and he was nailed to a cross!  This is the planet Earth- an imperfect world made of imperfect people, using imperfect materials trying to create perfection?!?  It doesn't even make sense!

The truth is that we are consciously aware of the concept of perfection but we never will attain it.  We are driven by the goal and that's real deal.  We are all absolutely equal in the fact that none of us can achieve perfection but we all can take aim in that direction and that is the only reason we've ever progressed beyond our limited ancestors.  The truth is that perfection is a nice target but "Better Is Better".  It means that improvement, no matter how small, is significant and important.  It means that trying hard does count, even if the achievement is minor.  And most importantly, it means that we aren't destined to fail!  Under the concept of achieving perfection, our whole history is a complete and utter failure.  Under the weight of being told we need to be the best, endless generations of capable, creative people have been stifled into inaction out of fear of failure.  It's not only cruel, it's criminal because the actual achievement of perfection is impossible and therefore it makes all of our race doomed to fail.

This may sound like a pretty heavy handed cross to bear for the simple request of achievement and for a lot of people, the request is fine because they never take it seriously.  But so many people I've known to be bright, strong, capable, beautiful people have spent their lives in remorse and self loathing for not being able to live up to the goals their parents, their peers and their society has set up for them.  For the highly sensitive individual, which most creatives are, knowing that perfection is expected is enough to never try at all.  What a waste of talent and imagination!

Don't let yourself get caught in the doomed cycle of perfectionism, either for yourself, your kids or your friends.  When you or others are working on project, any project, give yourselves a break: it doesn't have to be perfect- it can't be.  Just aim up and remember- Better IS Better!!  Get it?

When I was just a shade taller than my dad's knees, I remember the very first things he taught me how to draw.  The first was an ocean liner and the second was a biplane.  Now, these weren't any great feats of artistic draftsmanship, but they had one thing that has held my attention right to this very day: depth.  With a few simple lines, my father showed me that the white piece of paper in front of me didn't have to stay flat.  It could recede into the distance, it could create the illusion of layers- DEPTH!  These were my first lessons in perspective and angles but they were much more than that for me.  They were magic!  Miracles right before my eyes.  And it's taken all these years to put a name to that miraculous power.  Alchemy.  The ancient pseudo science of transforming one matter into another, in this case transforming two into three dimensions rather than lead into gold.  As far as I'm concerned, the transformation is easily as or more valuable than gold and has been the foundation of my whole life's development.

The alchemy of art still amazes me today, whether it's my own work or someone else's.  The ability to transform the viewer's experience through manipulation of materials feels like magic.  One time I had been viewing the burial monuments of the past popes in St. Peter's cathederal.  One in particular stunned me.  The foot of the pope that was represented in the statue rested on a pillow- all having been carved out of marble.  I couldn't, for the life of me, accept the hardness of the stone as the ability of this seminally unknown sculptor had miraculously changed the white Carrera marble into skin and stuffed and tufted fabric.  The effect was uncanny and it change the way I saw classical sculpture right then.  On the way out of the cathedral, we stopped to take one more look at Michelangelo's magnificent 'La Pieta', resting behind bulletproof glass near the entrance.  On the way in, I gave it 'my respects', but didn't see it!  Now, there it was- the softness, the emotion, the pathos, the absolute genius of rendering solid material into a weaping, grieving mother holding the body of her son, the Christ.  I could have sworn her chest was heaving as tears ran down her tortured but gracious face.  Now I saw it: the reason 'La Pieta' has remained as one of the most enduring masterpieces of sculpture for over 500 years.  Michelangelo was able to capture a moment, a single intimate moment of profound feeling and placed it permanently and perfectly held in solid stone!  This is not just art!  This is more than design and shape, light and shadow.  This is Magic and every person who has the willingness, the talent, the cunning and the audacity to call him or herself an artist has a great responsibility ahead of them.

Every artist who has had any experience making a living with their craft has heard the cat call at least once: "Why don't you get a real job?".  Even though our whole world is constructed and filled with the product of the artistic temperament, our society still sees it as an advocation, not a vocation: a pastime, not a job.  Where would our world be without the architects, the clothing designers, the image makers, the movie makers, the craftsmen and the creators- all artists?  We are responsible for creating the world we know today, for capturing the moment and making it stand throughout history.  We are not just hobbyists and self-endulgent, egocentric social outcasts trying desparately to create anything that gives our lives meaning!  We see the meaning of life!  As individuals, intuitively, collectively, we see life as no one else can, and we have more than the gall and temerity to attempt to capture it, we have to!  It's in our natures and in our souls and to live without creating, for us, is to not live at all!

So, when you see anyone's attempt to capture their vision, no matter how insignificant, how immature, how untrained or how audacious, give them respect.  They are trying to do the impossible- they are artists and they are making Magic!

Okay, I'm gonna say it.  I dislike the possible implications people might read into this, but I have to state the obvious- we create because we are mirrors of our Creator.

This is not a spiritual or religious declaration.  I'm not staking a claim to divinity.  Nor am I putting artists and creators into a divine category that is in any way beyond, above or superior to the rest of you schmucks.  The reality is, if there is any divine spark in any of us, it would be in all of us albeit maybe unrealized as of yet. And, however you may view existence as we know it, we are not our own creation, therefore I choose to adopt the term 'Creator' as a catch all for any interpretation of creation myth or big bang that suits you. 

We are what we are, whatever that is!  It's all perspective anyway and depending on this season's box seats that you pre-ordered online before coming here, your view of this particular moment in this particular miniscule quadrant of this particular perception of reality might actually not be shared by anyone at all. 

What does that make you?  Unique.  There really is no one in the universe that can claim the same mindset, the same vision or perspective as you.  With that in mind, it's amazing that we can agree on anything.  Lucky for us Homo Sapiens, our field of vision is limited to a few basic physical senses with some debatable sensory input on the side so, coming to a general consensus over something as common and shared as, say, the color of sky is a possibility, if only remotely. 

Yet, being the amazingly egocentric anthropomorphs tthat we are, we repeatedly assume that every other creature, human or otherwise, must perceive reality as we do ('we' being the royal, yet absolutely singular 'we').  It requires an amazing amount of study, dissection, revision and speculation for us to even attempt to understand another's perception, let alone another species.

And thus was born art.  Not just as a decorative record of our regal existence, but as a mark of commonality- a place to begin the dialog of possible shared perceptions of a massively complex and chaotic reality.  We've done this dance for so long that we don't even notice the work involved.  Hair styles, fabrics and textures, gestures, utterances, policies,economics, religions, flavors and fantasies all coalescing over eons to bring us to our present moment of self understanding that is equally amazing as it is grotesque.

We've got a long way to go before we can claim any relation to our own concepts of divinity.  This is not an easy task.   But if a picture can say a thousand words, then we might be able to tighten up our own evolution a little more effectively with the use of a pencil rather than a pen or sword.

Why create?  The question is loaded with implications.  What is creation?  Where does the impulse come from?  Is there such a thing as good versus evil or are we simply trying to give purpose and meaning to an ultimately chaotic and random existence?

These questions are important and essential to understanding ourselves and our universe, but the drive to create and manipulate our surroundings continues regardless.  Whether we ever come to understand our existence beyond the myopic egocentric surround that we inevitably find ourselves mired in, the creative instinct will keep pushing us toward a clearer and hopefully a more concise vision of our place in the cosmos.  Hopefully only with this caveat- that the better we come to understand ourselves, the better we learn to not take ourselves too seriously.  I believe that will come with the territory,  If our past is any indicator, we've got a lot of serious mistakes to live down.

Talking about art is a little like trying to put the fragrance back into the flower.  We know where it came from, we know how it entices the propagation of a variety of life.  What we don't know is how this majestic symphony of creation began.  We might as well try to neatly define God or the Infinite.  Now, here's the kicker- Is either pursuit actually that far removed from the other?  When does the quest for pure art become a quest for Ultimate understanding?  I propose that there has never been any difference, that the impulse to create is as natural and as essential to our survival as the fragrance of a flower.  The question then becomes, "Why?"  Why, indeed!

I was asked by Art and Invention Gallery to produce a 'permanent' logo for the annual TomatoArtFest.  Here's the finished product.

 A Black and white version of the new logo.

"Ripe Red", acrylic on canvas.  Being able to combine all aspects of my art into one piece (color palette, humor, lettering, pop style) brings out the best in me.
 

The client that commissioned this piece gave me free reign to do what I wanted.  I always seem to do my best work when I'm given that license.  This piece reflects the spirit of the client.  I love being able to intuit my patron's personalities and expressing them in art.

"Coming Soon"- a new piece that really captures my love of old signs as well as my sense of humor.
 

"Animato", acrylic on canvas.  This was one of the pieces shown at the annual Tomato-art-fest in East Nashville.  I entered 6 pieces as well as designing the poster and t-shirt art for the event, all of which sold out.

"Miracle", acrylic on canvas.  Also from the Tomato show.  Seems I've found my home here in Nashville.  They actually like my weird sense of humor.

So your child's a star?  This one got his own stage!  Ladies and Gentlemen, let's have a warm welcome...

He also wanted a red guitar- what a rock star!  With paint, anything's possible.

With a border of musical notes dancing around his room, this little star is living his dreams!

Barona Casino, 2 of 3.  Like so much of my commercial work, I created these pieces on canvas and sent them to the client for framing and hanging.  The internet has become an essential tool in my arsenal.

Barona Casino, 3 of 3.  Beyond the French impressionists of the19th century, the California plein aire artists took the concept that the Europeans developed and raised it to the level of genius.  I find this genre to be one of the best challenges to emulate as an artist.

This piece was commissioned to show the possible look of a 'green' community to be established in the Nashville area.  Despite some clingy old stereotypes of Southern life, Nashville, as well as most of Tennessee, embraces positive new concepts such as the 'green' movement.

Barona Casino entry piece, 1 of 3.  These pieces were commissioned by the casino to adorn one of their entrances to the casino.  Done in 'California plein aire' style, they capture the feel of the land that the Barona reservation sits on.

Left side of a large diptych mural for Barona Casino's new Mexican restaurant.  I just wanted to capture the flavor of old Mexico.

The right side of the diptych mural.  I added more space by making a breezeway that's open to the ocean view.