Coercion and the Artist

As someone who makes, my aim is to persuade others of the value of something, for example the beauty of an experience. My hope is that art, over time, has the potential to change the way people act by its tendency to stimulate thought, contemplation and debate through its appeal to the senses and the mind. Art can coerce but I choose not to use it in this way. I view coercion as an unwise, temporary solution, a sticking plaster rather than a cure for the ills of dissonance and conflict.

The Art of Honesty

Honesty: the quality of being truthful, sincere, and free of deceit.

No one else can enforce my honesty but me, and I have no power over another's honesty.

Honesty requires trust. At times I deceive, perhaps to protect myself or someone else, or to benefit in some way. I may feign honesty or call the honesty of another into question when I sense risk or reward.

When making art I can be wholly honest, and among my greatest pleasures is in its sharing.

Ways of Saying - Close and Far

I say something directly: I scan the horizon, a thin line where the sea meets the sky.

I say something with more significance: I look out across the sea along its meeting with the sky.

I say something metaphorically: I am the sea and you the sky, we meet, far, far away.

As I gaze across the sea to where it greets the sky I think of my difference with another, and how certain, yet distant it seems we are and will remain. Where sea meets sky, where sky meets sea.