Honor the Muse

Many years ago, a dear friend and artist wrote me this . . . Art is a form of communication. If an idea can be better expressed in writing, it should be poetry or prose. If it can be best expressed through sound, it should be music. The visual arts express something other or more […]

Art Is

My sister passed a couple of years ago. 4.24.24 would have been her 64th birthday. She wrote this many years ago. Art is an all encompassing act of love. It starts with a love of materials, is fed by a love of beauty, and in its fruition, it is a gift of love to all […]

We suffer from a lack of craft

Having a “craft” means bringing discipline and love to what you do. It’s thousands of hours of practicing your musical instrument so that when the time comes, you can play. It’s writing every day until you break through to something sublime. It could be making pots, writing poetry, learning martial arts, or being a transcendent […]

Musing on the Nature of Art

This is taken from a long email interchange between me and a very good friend who has since passed.  A terrible blow which makes rediscovering this essay so much the sweeter.  From 2002.

You Need a Craft

This might be one of my favorite essays from 2002 . . . a massive hat tip to two great musicians, one a gifted teacher, the other the man behind the trumpet in the genre defining band, Tower of Power.  Written in 2002