For most of my life, in one form or another, I’ve been blessed with the privilege of making art. From the time I was a twelve-year-old kid until I was an adult, I made my living playing music. When I was twenty-nine, I began creating images as a professional artist and have continued in that glorious pursuit for many years. Because of my competitive nature, I’ve achieved some success in both arenas. But I’ve paid a high price for that character trait.

I tend to become so analytical that the subtle emotional content of good art dies under my hyper-critical eye. The same thing happens for me with most music. I analyze everything I hear, and it sucks the life out of it. I envy people who can float along, ignoring painting techniques and contrapuntal harmonies, and simply enjoy the expressions of human creativity in all its myriad indecipherable complexities.

Fortunately, like the rest of humanity, I get so caught up reading a good story that I forget to analyze it. I love getting to know the characters and immersing myself in the world of a well-written book. The theatre of my imagination projects those images the words create into my mind, and it becomes the next best thing to vivid dreaming. It’s a healthy addiction.

So is writing the story. As a person who’s been in the arts all his life, there’s nothing better for me than turning that creative energy toward words to construct environments and circumstances in motion where people I love and hate exist. Their lives take on three dimensions, and I get to walk beside them and experience their reality.

I started writing ‘Impasto’ in 1999, and it took me fifteen years to complete. In part, it’s my personal story, gleaned from my years as a successful artist painting custom murals and paintings for the biggest casinos in Vegas and from my time living in Mexico.

During lunch breaks, while painting dioramas for The Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium, I wrote most of ‘Weed.’ It’s written in an almost stream-of-consciousness style. Like a killer whale, I let my imagination freely swim in whatever ocean it wanted. I finished it in 2017.

‘Halos’ came from an idea I had for a musical where angels played a minor role against a group of aging rockers. As I wrote it, the novel evolved into a more elaborate and engaging story—sans the aging rockers. I finished it at the beginning of 2024.

Our universe began with a few words. The right combinations of words have been changing our world for many millennia. They and the ideas they express are the real bedrock of civilization. The Word that became a human being has been changing my life for more than fifty years. Words have the power to move me like nothing else.