I never took a visual arts course, barring 1st & 2nd grade. I never took a poetry course, nor a music lesson. My technique in every genre I approach is entirely self-taught. I bought a saxophone and started to blow. I took some pens and started to draw. I speak three languages, I’m picking up a fourth, and have been writing daily with my left hand to become ambidextrous. The more parts of my brain I can activate, the more the learning feeds into all my work.
The wide array of genres I tap into is reflective of the wide range of topics I experiment with in my pieces. Only through deliberate effort and time can I be constantly learning and innovating new techniques to express ideas. Scrolling through my pieces you may notice they are all very different, I make multiple a day, that is no coincidence.
This piece, Brains, is an image of the most important organ I have. It’s a drawing of my balls. The association of the two, in fact the simultaneous juxtaposition, questions our illusion of control. Who controls you, your brain or your primal urges? Isn’t your brain a similarly limited decision maker?
Thots aside, this is just one of many early doodles. When learning to draw, some study birds and trees or fruit in academic settings or peaceful meadows, I didn’t. My first instincts were as a poet, use as few lines as possible to deliver as full a message. The style has evolved but carries through. The image and what it says takes total priority, and that’s why I sign on the back.