My artist statement has grown shorter over the years as I have gotten older, in part because I no longer feel the need to “explain” where my art comes from, which is a relief because I simply don’t know.  Still, there's a distillation of ideas in my mind, and, sometimes, a particular thing I read or hear will capture it so effectively that I file the text away in my brain. This could be part of a poem or an essay or a lyric.  And, therein lies the value of art to the viewer or listener; when I experience compelling work, it sticks with me, as a concise, if complicated, view of someone’s else’s interiority or their own particular experience of the world. Sometimes, through the lens of others, I see my own reflection.  I hope my own work can likewise do both for people who see it. To share what I see and to connect our humanity.

Though many creatives have fulfilled this role for me, Leonard Cohen has been my most consistent bard, as he so succinctly captures the shifting scale of the human experience.  “We are so small between the stars / so large against the sky” he sings, reminding us that our place determines so much, that our perspective is relative, and that we are fleeting. Capturing moments, through art, then seems more than a worthy endeavor to me.