Kaleidoscope is the basic image that comes to mind when I try to describe what my work is trying to do. It is a child’s toy, but is it?

To me, the world is a ‘Cosmic Kaleidoscope’ with no clear demarcations between past and future, trivial and significant, magnificent and grotesque, glorious and tragic. At any given moment in time I matter or I don’t, and even that doesn’t seem to be very relevant. We are all like the images in the lens of a kaleidoscope… intricate, beautiful, delicate, and fleeting.

My work is my attempt to understand this mysterious, magical world that we all share. When it becomes too unfathomable for me to deal with I try to scale it down like a minimalist until it is of a size I can manage on a canvas or in a poem. For those things that I find silly or trivial, I try to grace them with a grandeur they, heretofore, have not known. For the pompous and grandiose I try to add a bit of humour.

Perhaps I find that feelings are the only reality. I say perhaps because I can get very involved in the importance of ‘tea cups’ also. But even with tea cups I try to make that Cosmic Connection… because when you want a cup of tea they are quite essential. I have always been deeply fascinated with the world we live on, and that greater world out beyond the stars. I use celestial references wherever I can, and try to pull together those things from my everyday life with the mysteries of ALL life… my artistic String Theory.

There are many ‘voices’ in my work, for often when I write or paint I feel that I am speaking through many different ears and in many different tongues from both the past and the future. We are all the mélange of a vast chain of different cultures, disparate philosophies, histories and languages, many of which seemed to have at various times and in various places touched and overlapped. And they are all valid, unique, and beautiful. I respond to them all without judgment. I am very moved by color and kinetic images, both visual and verbal, and I want to pull you into my work. Art should engage you, move you and make you think. I have tried to do that on canvas and in print. I like to think of myself as a visual philosopher. I see similarities between Colombian Indian culture and Ancient Egyptian art and culture. The Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs brought beautiful art to the world, and I feel there are similarities to those of the ancient eastern Mediterranean cultures and I sometimes like to play with that notion. I want my work to make you think about what we are and where we are, and what it all means. Often the ‘persona’ of one of my poems or one of my paintings is like a Greek Chorus echoing in unison. Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage,” and it is upon this stage that we all must find our relevance – we must perform. We are ephemeral but we are significant. And it is wonderful.