Tracing a Star Backwards in a Mirror

As an artist and writer I seek to express the most poignant moments of being a spirit in a body on a planet spinning, transforming grief into awareness and empathy into action.

Poetry was my passion as a child. From early childhood, I wrote poetry and short stories which have enjoyed some recognition. My mother studied Elizabethan literature for her Masters degree and was forever citing verse — sometimes hurling it, as in: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is an ungrateful child!” While that was hard to take, I appreciated her Christmas gift to me: A Child’s Collection of Poetry, which I read under the covers with a flashlight. 

Poetry is not my only calling — I am a Renaissance soul in the age of specialization.

As an artist, I love working in a number of mediums. I grew up doing ballet and went on to become a modern dancer/choreographer. In my mid-twenties I started to wonder what I would do if I didn’t dance all the time. As it turned out, I’d resurrect the passion for visual art that I’d had since childhood, and then would also study acting, compose original piano pieces, and write more poetry and fiction. 

Visual art is as natural and essential to me as breathing.

I was self-taught until I studied art at a community college in Seattle. I honed my skills and expanded my media into digital art and printmaking. I’ve taught art to children as young as three and adults as old as hundred and five. Currently I teach art to adults with disabilities through the non-profit Vibrant Palette. It’s extremely rewarding work. I also teach Improv to autistic adults in conjunction with one of my twin sons (both are autistic).

For instance, Haiku has the formula of introducing a constant, then a change, then returning to the constant which is now changed. So in composing piano pieces I start with a simple clear musical phrase (the constant), build upon that phrase by making it more complex (then a change), and distill the verse back down to a repetition of the simple opening phrase (return to a constant which is now changed). There’s satisfaction in recognizing the opening phrase again but appreciating it differently for the journey from the start of the piece to the end.

Emotionally it can be difficult to be pulled in a number of creative directions at once, and I mourn for what I am not doing at any given time. But I’ve come to envision my creative practices like a solar system that travels in orbits. If I can't play piano when I want to, or paint in the moment I am inspired, I’ll know it is currently in an outer orbit and will circle back in eventually.

As a writer and artist I want to communicate what it feels like to be a spirit in a body on a planet spinning, during times that are testing us to our very core. It’s good to tend to your microcosm and let your positive vibrations reverberate through the world. Everything we do now matters.