My mind is a comet trapped in a snail.

Hurtling at the speed of light on the shortest of leashes

in the smallest of confines.

These are volatile times.

Note: The expression of my emotions when I become upset or deep in thought tend to take form in words, metaphors, descriptions with evocative visuals. Yet I do not consider myself a poet per se. That is too limiting. What I am learning to do is channel my thoughts, ideas, and emotions and breathe another layer of life into them by reincarnating them into another aesthetic form whose medium and language serves to shed light on another angle of the subject heretofore unseen, unconsidered.

This is the work of an artist in whatever medium.

Too much energy is spent controlling the medium, which only causes a stifling and a dilution. This is not to say that technique is unimportant, but what is most important is that the energy put into the technique and application of the medium match the energy that conceived the work. Otherwise, the truth will have been misrepresented to such an extent to prove irrecognizable by the heart despite the best of intentions.

That is why so much of my art has failed in my own eyes.

Well-crafted dead things do not incite the spirit. But spirited work, work that has integrity being true to itself, however clumsy or imperfect, screams its own living-ness. Of course, the ideal being a balance of the two - spark and craft. But the spark is the most crucial element. This is what the soul responds to. This is nourishment for the mind, the heart, the imagination.

This is what makes artistic pursuits significant in a world of excess.

So artists, be true to yourself, and create truthful art.