One Million Project Magazine

What has been a seminal experience?
What to choose?
When I was a teenager I traveled cross country
three years in a row from the west coast to
the east coast. Each of those years I took a
weeklong cruise on a tall ship off the coast of
Maine, a windjammer schooner cruise. We
helped sail and every morning we hoisted the
largest mainsail in the world on the Adventure
- the vessel now lives in the Smithsonian Maritime
Museum. The experience is still indescribable.
I never knew I could fall in love with
a ship. After those three voyages, there’s
nothing I wouldn’t have done for her.
What work do you most enjoying
doing?
Creating. Words or art, creating is king for me.
What themes do you pursue?
One of my strongest themes is selfdetermination.
In writing, I love for my characters
to grow until they are the master of their
own destiny. In my art I want my pieces to be
able to speak for themselves and draw viewers
into my imagination.
What’s your favourite art work?
Too many to name. Anything that blows my
mind. When I look at a piece and my jaw
drops because I have no idea how the artist
created the effect or imagined the scene, or
composed the colors, it becomes a new favorite
piece.
Describe a real-life situation that
inspired you?
I was in a game store when I was probably
only seventeen or so. A woman brought her
young son into the store waving a Dungeons
and Dragons book at the proprietor. She demanded
to know if he had sold her child the
book. He said he did, though he announced
this with great reservation. She turned around
and thanked him. She said her son had been
doing incredibly better in school, he’d been
inspired to read and think creatively. I’d already
been playing for years at that point and
it really hit home how mentally stimulating
role playing was for me.
Why art?
Art is all around us, it’s in clouds that puff and
flow through the sky. It’s in the wind that flutters
through the leaves on trees to orchestrate
shows of light and sound. It’s in the
curves of the female figure and the giggle of
an infant. Art is sensory pleasure in any form.
Of course I want to take part!
Name something you love, and
why.
Illumination. Not only do I have a great love
of light, when I see it in a painting as though
it’s bursting off the canvas, I am completely
enamoured.
Copyright © 2016 by OMP Magazine Publishing