Artist’s Statement
In 2020, I was awarded an MFA in Creative Writing, focused on Poetry, from The New School in New York City. In 2021, I accepted an appointment as a Professor, Liberal Arts Department, Los Angeles Film School, where I will teach Creative Writing to undergraduate students.
ARTS PRACTICE
I am an artist. Writing is one area of my practice — social engagement is another. My work spans traditional art genres — poetry, drama, essay, design, music, performance, oral history — as well as non-traditional undertakings that may appear to be more like business enterprises — enterprise art.
ENTERPRISE ART
Examples of projects that reflect my approach the art of social practice include: launching an organization, Slow Money NYC, that convenes dialogue about investment in local foods and farms; developing the first arts space in New York City to be awarded a certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold — Greenbelt / Center for Performance Research; and organizing a national educational summit for food innovators, Food & Enterprise (part of the Food Book Fair).
THEMES
In addition to my diverse areas of practice, my work grapples with a variety of recurring themes. My projects aim to explore and to celebrate small actions that may bring about big change in our lives — and in the World. What can each of us do to find our own sense of meaning or self? How can we recover from loss — lost connections to ourselves and to our personal and collective histories? Who can speak for the silenced and the ignored — like the Earth itself or animals or The Dead? Where do language, objects and places fit into the shape of our layered identities — consciously and unconsciously? When do we know that we have found what we seek or, at least, accept that the process of searching seems worth all the confusion and the struggle?
NON- FICTION
I have embraced many different approaches to enacting social change — from practical and tactical to theoretical and aesthetic. For instance, I have written a guidebook detailing pathways to achieve urban environmental justice, Community Lawyering: Theory & Practice (NYLPI-Fordham 2000). I published essays about the sustainability of our food system, such as “Using Slow Money to Farm the City”Farming the City (transcity 2013) and “Urban Farmer Backlash” Small Farms Quarterly (2011); as well as articles about ethical alternatives to our legal systems, such as “Forgiveness as a Problem-Solving Tool in Courts” (2000) and “What Does It Mean to Be a Good Lawyer?” Judicature (2001). I blogged for a year about the viability of urban agriculture on thegreenest.net (now offline), see an exemplary post re-printed: “New York City Urban Agriculture: 2010 Review,” City Farmer News (2011).
CURRENT WORK
I have a diverse roster of art projects. For instance, I am putting together a collection of poems [Working Title: Ghost Riding] for which I intend to seek publishers in early Summer 2021. In pursuit of work for this project, I was awarded two artist’s residencies: Mount Tremper Arts, Phoenicia, NY (2017) and Fundación Valparaiso, Mojácar, Spain (2019). I am writing a TV Pilot [Working Title: Psychodrama] — based on my experiences growing up with a charismatic leader of psychic cult in 1980s — my Father. I penned the book for a song cycle in 2020, Corona Crazy, for which we seek producers and actors to help present the performance online on Zoom — sometime in late Spring 2021. In 2020, I was Script Consultant for the screenplay, Tropical Gothic, authored by Director-Actor-Producer, Isabel Sandoval, now slated for production in Fall 2021. I am in the process of researching a screenplay project [Working Title: The Walk] — an adaptation of a recent biography of Swiss novelist, Robert Walser, and his pseudo-biographical 1917 novel of the same name. Lastly, I am in the initial planning stages for a podcast [Working Title: Make & Believe Review] for which I intend to interview artists about their spiritual practices and their belief systems — exploring how these aspects of their lives impact the ways in which they make art works.
CURATION
I am deeply engaged in the community of artists who have a commitment social practice. I have organized several exhibitions of artwork, performance and experiential events highlighting this approach to creating art: Brooklyn Utopias, Old Stone House Historic Center (2010-12); Urban Chautauqua: Food Art Performance Series, 61 Local Community Space, Brooklyn (2011-12); Storied Foods: Festival of Ideas, New Museum, New York (2011); FARM CITY, Crossing the Line Festival, French Institute Alliance Francaise, New York and Brooklyn (2010); Green House Effect, Center for Performance Research, Brooklyn (2008) and Displacement, Center for Performance Research (2008). I have served on Advisory and Governing Boards and Benefit Committees of many New York City arts organizations: Groundswell Mural Project. Williamsburg Arts Nexus, NurtureArts, Elizabeth Foundation for Arts, Jill Sigman : ThinkDance and Chez Bushwick (Capital B Project).
SPEAKING
I have been honored to have been invited to speak about the art of social practice and how my work embodies this approach: “Conversation about Art and Urban Gardening,” Arario Gallery, (2010); “Art and Urban Agriculture,” Pratt University (2010); “Utopian Urban Planning,” Brooklyn Historical Society, (2009); “Green Buildings for the Arts” Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable, 2008; “Hybrid Cultural Spaces”, +Housing Symposium, AIA Center for Architecture (2008); “Saving Our Cultural Capital”, The New School (2008). My work in social practice art has been recognized by the following awards: One Prize (2012); Green Cinderella (2008); Building Brooklyn Award (2008); Best Hybrid Building Design, American Institute of Architects (2008).
PUNK BEDROCK
I got my start in the arts playing guitar in indie rock and punk bands from 1980s through 2007 — Carpe Diem, Choke, Geek, Box and Department of Buildings. Geek included Jenny Toomey (Tsunami, Liquorice, etc.), Lillian Daniel, and Ivor Hansen (Faith, Embrace) and put out a 7” vinyl “ and two cassette albums, “Herasure” and “Hammer.” In the process, I founded a cassette tape label, Idiot Music Incorporated (1983-1991) and multi-media Simple Machines Records (1989-1998) for which I created the logo, graphic and album designs. The sensibility of DC Hardcore music scene (of which I was an active and enthusiastic participant) has informed all of my subsequent arts practices, my world view and my life choices. As socially-conscious artists in our youth, we were seeking alternatives to mainstream culture and relief from oppressive social norms. As a result, we created a version of “punk” that was more than a style of dress or song. We adopted straight edge (anti-drug) philosophy, embraced a focus on vigorous youth participation in the arts ($5 all ages rock shows) and regarded political activism as an extension of our arts practice — vegetarianism, animal rights, environmentalism, gender parity, sexual liberation, anti-apartheid, housing justice, anti-war, etc. Myself and my peers gathered together in a youth collective called “Positive Force,” forming an activist wing of the local arts scene that fomented a great of political awareness, organizing, fundraising, and visible public protest.