Artist’s Statement
Were I were ever called upon to submit a personal essay about who I am and what I do for, say, a contest or a residency, I would provide something like this to describe my own sensibilities and sense of purpose. In saying what I’m not about, I may have rubbed some people the wrong way. I apologize in advance for any unintended hurt feelings, but this is a polemic, a call-to-arms, and critique of wordsmithing-as-usual. Please read it in that spirit.
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I’m a writer. First off, to be clear, I don’t do lyrical — at least not deliberately. And rarely poetry, for the same reason, being there’s too much wonder-of-life lyricism that fogs over much of what is critical to do if the human species hopes to extend its tenure on this orb so defiled by self-interest. Artists and writers are too often told to express themselves to show who they are and perhaps what they stand for. Such prompts encourage solipsism and withdrawal from the public stage, eliciting self-centering meditations on what it means to be me. I have a problem with that.
Attending to what it means to be me is precisely what’s put us in the pickle barrel that some call late-stage capitalism — which fosters a looking-out-for-number-one mentality that divorces one from communities beyond one’s own subspecies. Thanks especially to Web 2.0 (blogging and commenting) and social media (subtly mediated), we tend to associate only with our own kind in echo chambers. If all we’re interested in is expressing ourselves and gathering fans, we are doomed to self-select into Sartre’s Hell (eerily predictive of late-stage capitalism).
I write to express myself but not to promote myself. I am not a brand. I don’t even know or care what my brand is. When I write, it’s usually to say GET REAL, PEOPLE; THE WORLD YOU THINK YOU INHABIT IS BUT A STAGE SET. Your umwelt is seriously circumscribed and you don’t even know it.
And so, what I write — except for amusement or exercise — is reality-based and focuses on communicating how memes and mindsets are fashioned to prevent us from seeing what is going on behind our backs. Awaking sleepers is a tough job, but someone needs to do it, for the sake of our world and species’ very survival. So bear with me for a while.
