portrait of the artist as a young boy

MY STORY

It all started in 1977, when
i had my first art show.
I was five years old.

My girlfriend Colleen,
who lived next door,
was my assistant.

I had another art show the following year.
It made the local paper:

In 1979, i had my third backyard art show.
This time, the reporter brought his camera:

I carried around a little bank, for when i
sold a piece, and gave tours of my collection:

In September 1980,
when i was 8, i put on a magic show.

Lisa Marie, who lived down the street, was my assistant.
She was very tall and i was very short.
Friends Jody and John also helped.

And for the grand finale...

I climbed into a box and disappeared!!
Pay no attention to the big blue curtain blocking off
the adjacent room i "disappeared" into.
It's MAGIC!!!

I didn't like magic.
It felt too much like lying.

I was rather shocked when some of the kids
seemed to actually believe i disappeared,
then reappeared when Lisa Marie
said a magic spell.

It was my only magic show.

The last art show
of my childhood was July 19, 1981.
This time, the newspaper sent a reporter ahead
of time, to do a promotional piece:

Notice the addition of "rock" in the caption above.
Other than a brief dalliance with piano, i didn't play music yet,
(this was a few years before i got my first guitar). No, it was
an "art and rock" show because i had - ahem - collected
a bunch of rocks during walks in the woods.

I was running out of art.

I didn't do much art in the Reagan era.
Art class was once a week in grade school and jr. high.

My aunt and mentor, Debra Pearlman, moved
away to college and an art career of her own.

It was nearly 20 years
before i had another art show.
I turned towards other creative disciplines.

My family moved to Riverside, California in 1986, when i was 14.
I focused on Drama and Journalism in high school, playing Sonny in "Grease", and
Humphrey Bogart in the Woody Allen comedy "Play It Again Sam", promoting opening day
by dressing in full "Bogie" regalia during regular classes. Someone said i
looked like Inspector Gadget, which ruined the whole tough guy effect.

In my senior year, i won the first "Best Director" award
in Arlington High School history, when Phil Homer bravely
let a few seniors have a go at directing for the stage.

My 35mm camera was an omnipresent force on campus, always by my side.
I was the photo and features editor of AHS's "The Mane Thing", and went on to
be Editor-In-Chief of Riverside Community College's "Viewpoints" in 1992, covering
Los Angeles' Rodney King riots in person, a photojournalist in an urban war zone:

1993-1997 was spent under the hedonistic
and heavenly halo of San Diego State University's
Telecommunications & Film program, where i wrote, directed and
starred in numerous short films under the guise of academia:

In 1997,
i founded The Mindswell Project,
and wrote "The Meaning of life - A Juxtaposition of Truth"
after i dropped out of college and started painting and drawing again.
I had a few small art shows of the new stuff
in Los Angeles and Venice Beach.

Venice 2002