I guess it’s almost required that I say something today. A year ago, this time, I was driving people home, fearing for my life, for my family’s life, and fearing for the life of my girlfriend (now my ex), all of whom I could not reach on my cell phone. I had written before about how much closer all mankind was due to our communications technology, yet how separate and divided we all remain. Thing is, I think that we as artists remain connected necessarily to everyone else, we remain with a part of ourselves tied so closely to the hearts of others, that something like what happened last year must need change our work, must change how we express what we must express. My work has changed since then, as has my life. I am far more honest, far more ready to bear my soul, blotches and all, because I value much more than ever the very shortness of our own simple lives. Things I am disturbed by after 9.11.01: Loss of individual freedoms, driven by Ashcroft, Bush, et al, but acquiesced to all too easily by 300 million+ other accomplices (let’s call them the American people, for now); loss of personal feelings of security or safety; loss of freedom to be unpatriotic, etc. I am perturbed by the obnoxious and false patriotism of flags and vestments besotted in red, white and blue.
to be continued…