When I was in high school, I really didn’t care at all about the popular kids. I knew I would never be one of them. I’m glad about that. I could afford to be an individual without worrying about my status or rank.

That’s kind of how I think about my art now. I do art for myself. Art that tells my personal story, or helps me work through things whether they be current life issues or nagging childhood concerns.

In working through personal issues visually, I find that I am not unique. Many other people have dealt with exactly the same things I have had to work through. So the more personal my stories are for me, the more personal they can be in the eye of the viewer.

I don’t mind a pretty picture of a shoreline or one of the many species of waterfowl or flowers that grow here. I just have no interest in painting them.

Like many people who developed a visual language at a young age, I wrestled with the gift of dyslexia, which was far less understood in the 1960’s than it is now. And so I believed I was stupid.

Did you know that a fish in a tree is a symbol for dyslexia?

The image came from Einstein’s quote Everyone is a genius but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.