As someone who has had an active engagement with the Spirit world from when I was a young boy to the present, I learned very early on that it was best to not speak of these things. While many people in our society will pray to angels, saints and other divine beings for help, the idea that spirits would answer back and that you could have an ongoing relationship with these beings makes some people feel you are either crazy or somehow spiritually advanced.

A shaman I was studying with once complimented me on my spiritual nature. At first I could not accept the compliment and waived it off. I went back and explained what had happened and that I wanted to fully receive the compliment, but I saw all my faults and humanness. I told him I was just stumbling along doing the best I can. He said "We all are. But we have help."

All of the work that you are seeing in this show is derived from my personal spiritual experiences: The Four Brothers from experiences with spirits in Bali, Dismemberer from experiences I have had while doing shamanic training, I Am Dead from processes that I have used to shape my own consciousness and the Standing Figure and The Escape from my ongoing exploration of the relationship between the body and spirit.

This is a bit of a coming out for me and in some ways not of my choice. It is much easier to keep these things hidden. But I believe that it is very important during this time that art be re-spiritualized and that given the challenges at hand we need all the help we can get as we stumble along.