Artist Statement
Mystic Artist
I started writing fiction and painting after years as a journalist, in newsrooms in Tokyo and London, where I was always telling other people's stories.
The creative part of me got lost.
Writing and painting have helped me find my way back to my own voice.
After years living in some of the world's biggest cities, I had to get back to the earth. Now, I work out of a yurt in the Oregon woods. It was important to be alone, to be free of the chatter, to find my own voice.
I'm working on a Young Adult novel about a horse called RED, and at the same time painting a series called Mystic Equine. I fold the two disciplines of writing and art into each other whenever I can to make the process easier.
A lot of my work as a book coach and artist/novelist is about not hiding parts of ourselves, and what happens when we do.
I paint bruises. I write and paint about the wildness that gets trained out of us. Sometimes I call it "feral mysticism."