I didn’t grow up going to movies. They were frowned upon by our church. Once in a while, the family would pile into the station wagon and go to the drive-in theater. I remember one time seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We left before the second feature, Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968). That was pushing it too far. Later, we were living in Liberia, where we couldn’t really see current movies anyway.

The summer of 1977, we were in the States, and my aunt took us to see the first Star Wars movie with my cousins. Later, I saw it again on laserdisc at my school in Africa.

That’s what this little mixed media abstract reminds me of. When Luke bought R2-D2 and C3PO out of that ship on Tatooine.

Expectations are dangerous for me, whether they are my expectations about a specific piece of art, or what kind of lasting impression I hope my body of work will have on other people.  These are things I have to think about, and it can be difficult to strike a balance between innovation and roadblocks.  I find it is best for my creativity to just do things without too much planning and projection.  You see, there are things that I just do without any effort.  They are simple and natural.  They happen organically.  They just unfold if I let them, and sometimes lead me down a new avenue of artistic expression.

In this hot, dry time of year, I’ve been shooting videos of  moving water.  Smoke from forest fires hangs in the air, but the videos are cool and refreshing.  Waves tumble the rocks along the shoreline, or crash giddily over boulders.  With that image in the back of my mind, I opened my art box to create something on paper.  Images of rocky shoreline tumbled out unintentionally.

Some creative mediums require more preparation and planning, like ceramics, and glass blowing.  I can pick up a pencil or pastel, or slather paint onto a surface with no fuss.  No rules.  No risk.