About
My business is not about business, it's about the aesthetic creation, historical awareness and emotional and psychological sophistication required to enter the ranks of generous artists.
I made my first drawings, paintings and sculptures in the 1970's. And my most recent show just ended April 2018 at MoMA in NYC.
We live in the creation. Every moment the world is being created and re-created all around us. We are part of the creative process. It is the most natural thing in the world to be an artist. Yet it's not. Why is that?
Creativity, our natural artistic response, gets educated out of us. Picasso said, "We are all born artists. The problem is to remain one." So learning to be an artist is more about unlearning how you cannot be one.
Creating art allows allows you to see and feel the world around you and to share your reactions to it. Making art gives the world access to the one thing it doesn't have: your perspective.
I love sharing my perspective.
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Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new student?
Blindfold, tie the dominant hand behind the back and set a timer for 5 minutes. That's not true, I don't have a typical process. But it's almost true because the main obstacle preventing any of us from being great artists, which we naturally are, is our own judgements against our efforts. So, when you create circumstances in which you cannot judge yourself, then you have already crossed an important hurdle toward the goal of becoming an artist.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
Creating the art for hundreds of shows in more than a dozen countries and the US and having shows at numerous museums including my most recent show at MoMA in NYC, The American Museum of Art, MIA in Minneapolis, and the National Museum of Viet Nam.
But the education and training came from spending a year touring the best mesuems of Europe repeatedly and studying art by looking at art made by the masters as depicted in tens of thousands of images in my art library of 800 volumes.
Do you have a standard pricing system for your lessons? If so, please share the details here.
I tend to avoid words like "standard", "typical," "habitual," and "normal." But I have conducted ideation sessions for major corporations for which I receive thousands of dollars. And I have happily spent time with children making playlands for dolls made of sticks with no compensation.
How did you get started teaching?
I started by tricking my two year old sister, who is three years younger than I, to draw on the wall of my bedroom after assessing a drawing I had made on the wall and realizing that I probably shouldn't have drawn there. So I gave her some crayons and told her to get busy. Then I called my mom to look at what my sister had done.
What types of students have you worked with?
I've spent a lot of time with corporate people, with dementia sufferers and with young adults that want to have an interesting life.
Describe a recent event you are fond of.
Burning Man. It is a festival of art held every year on a dried lake bed in the dessert of Nevada. All the art is interactive. About 80,000 people from around the world go. One of the lessons of Burning Man is that you, meaning each of us, are responsible for entertaining ourselves (and each other).
What advice would you give a student looking to hire a teacher in your area of expertise?
You are your own guru. A great teacher helps you find what the guru inside of you already knows.
What questions should students think through before talking to teachers about their needs?
All people should think twice before speaking once. That's a little glib. But it indicates the belief I hold that we all need self-reflection to learn what we really want to know. Nothing is beyond us. Art is a great tool for self examination, properly practiced, it is like a meditation practice that helps you clearly see who you really are.