On Art

• Art is a connecting, unifying force. It can be used for the opposite, but it functions optimally with that intention. I think this is because art can only be created out of love. The requirement to doing anything is balance, especially when it comes to making art.
• Art is not about making well-made objects, or luxury items, it’s about communicating ideas and expressing visions through objects and experiences. The substance of the artist is the human spirit through material expression. The work the artist does is fundamentally on him/herself — enhancing the perspective, the sensibility, the depth, the coherence of oneself.
• I don’t think there can be right or wrong in art, but it is very hard not to judge diverging ideas and ways of creating. It’s a matter of preference and resonance.
• There have been a handful of times where artworks just seem to come “through me” in a wondrous state of inspiration. The rest are rational attempts to imitate that state.
• Great art expands awareness and enhances experience. When we deeply connect to art, we are connecting to a part of life, to life’s essence. We say great art has the capacity to change our life — the way we think and feel, if and why we care, and what we care about.
• As we move into a cult of originality, where the only focus of an artistic statement is the way in which it is communicated, the substance of that statement is lost, the meaning is devalued — we pay less attention to what we are saying and why, and we become less caring.
• In a world geared to fame and fortune, can we define success in a better, more human way? Is the objective of creating art not the art itself? Of course sharing that art is important, but isn’t that relationship imbalanced today?
• In a pluralistic world, where everyone has the right to their opinion, who decides what’s right and wrong? In the art world, do critics decide? Museums? Collectors?
• Art and money is a challenging relationship. First, our personal beliefs about money. Then, the necessity to make money. Afterwards, deciding what type of artist one is going to be, what type of artist one wants to be (in relation to society). As an artist, is there shame in making money? Is there shame in not making any? Should there be shame at all?
• Is creating art a selfish or unselfish act? We now live in an extremely individualistic world, prizing genius, fame and fortune over everything else. But art can also be an act of contribution, of service, regardless of recognition. (?)
• There are cultural codes. Each period of time has them. Great artists paradoxically embody them and transcend them. In what way do they transcend them? In my mind, they express what it means to be human.
  Has this quality of great art been lost to a dehumanized, pre-trans-human world?
• Is being an artist mean being a leader? Is it being a leach on society? Living a life outside the norm? What does being an artist mean? What can it mean?
• Is it not the case that we ostracize creativity except when it is successful?
• What is the purpose of art in a world of mechanics, of complex systems, of deadlines, of profits? What is the purpose of art in a world desensitized, baffled, divided? What is the purpose of art in a world that doesn’t conceive of the divine? What true, human change can it make?

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