Kevin, what led you down the path of Fine Arts? Is there a story you might want to share of how you were inspired to carve this path for yourself?

"OK, well we'll start off with some soft ball questions to get warmed up here.. har, har, har... sigh... how to answer this in 4,000 words or less.... ????

It's strange, but I've sort of fought it all the way down the line. Looking backwards I understand it's what's made me what I am today... for better and worse.

The notion of attending art school was floated past me in High School when I was a senior. I just never embraced it as a serious path to follow. Everybody on planet earth knows artists don't make much. Even in high school I was wary of that path. I never had rose colored glasses about any of this stuff. It's the road less traveled overgrown with thorny brambles and no clear path to success.

Straight out of high school I went to a four year college. Studied drawing and studio arts as electives, but saw a more serious direction towards engineering. I wanted to be an Automotive Designer probably starting somewhere in high school. But I grew up in the suburbs of Washington D.C., which in those days was a serious government town. Even to this day there is no manufacturing base here. There are no Industrial Design jobs here to speak of. So it was a bit like wanting to be an astronaut in Iowa ... good luck with that. Engineering didn't seem that far off the mark.... what the heck, give it a try.

At any rate, I bombed out of that school. I was in the advanced math program in high school. Took Trigonometry twice... no dice. I took it a couple more times in college to similar effect. It was pretty clear I wasn't going down the engineering path in life. It wasn't that I couldn't have eaten up trig and run with it.. It was that I couldn't see the value of it in my life. It made no sense to learn it... or possibly more accurately, to retain it. It was for me a bit like eating rice cakes and only rice cakes three times a day. Simply stated, it wasn't for me.

I've studied so much stuff, it's almost hard to remember it all at this point. I pursued my automotive interests along the way as well. Became a Ferrari Mechanic, worked on vintage race cars, and dreamed of racing. Not sure that dream ever moves into the past tense, but side stepping that issue here.

As great as working on Ferraris sounds... and it is great for all the obvious reasons... at some point it becomes a job where you've been at work for less than half an hour, and you're bleeding ... again. I was always OK with mechanics, gears and such. As long as I could see it, I could figure it out. Electronics weren't so easy for me. I reached another point with that, and realized that wasn't my path in life either. I had a conscious awareness that I was an artist, and not a mechanic. That was a pretty rough week frankly. A bit of a brain scramble. Sea changes in self definition like that can shake you up in weird unexpected ways.

I set a course back towards the auto design realm. There were two places to go in the US. Center for Creative Studies (CCS) in the gritty heart of Detroit, right off the legendary Woodward Avenue. Art Center College of Design (ACCD, or 'Art Center' as it's most frequently called) was the other transportation design school of choice. Art Center is located in Pasadena, CA, literally on the hillside right above the Rose Bowl stadium. Guess which one I picked?? Do I look like an idiot???

Somehow I had matured enough along the way before I got there, that I knew I wanted to go into product design, and not transportation design. At Art Center the two groups are lumped together as one undifferentiated mass in the early stages.

Auto design is fabulous if you are the Vice President of Design/Styling. .. the head of the studio. Think Harvey Earl, and Bill Mitchel. On the other hand, It can be a horrible place in the trenches. You hear stories of guys going toe to toe screaming at each other over where a piece of trim should go on some grocery getting sedan. And you hear tales of guys working their whole careers and getting maybe one of their hubcap designs into production before they retire.

Life is too short for that. Soul sucking 'creativity', and guys impugning each others parentage over a piece of trim molding... no thanks. So I was over the design cars bug... as much as a gear head can get over such things.

I showed up at Art Center ready to set the world on fire.... and flamed out. Los Angeles wasn't the liberal haven TV situation comedies would lead you to believe it is. That's Regan country, except for a small part from say Hollywood west to the ocean. The people I was around in class weren't the sort of folks I envisioned spending my working life with.

I had by that time earned a two year art history degree, and had been a voracious consumer of all sorts of art and design books for years, and years. The people around me were completely uneducated in such things. The son of the department head was friendly with one of my housemates. One night, talk turned to Jackson Pollock.... he had NO idea who Jackson Pollock was. A senior now. It was mind blowing. It's like saying you don't know who Elvis is. I'm sure he knows who both are now. At any rate. I felt really out of place there in a whole host of ways. ID felt wrong, the place felt wrong, the people felt wrong, the city felt wrong.... And back in Michigan my dad was on his death bed.

I must say, my best day at Art Center was the day I cut classes and went to the Robert Longo visiting artist lecture in the auditorium. He was preparing for his big LACMA retrospective at the time. Seemed the entire school was in there except the ID department. I got a charge out of that lecture that, in some ways, continues to this day. It was like a breath of fresh air in a world filled with stale air. It felt right.

Was funny in a not really funny sort of way. I also cut class the day Ettore Sottsass came for a talk. None of the guys in my class were there. Most of the ID department was in there I suppose, but only them. The rest of the school couldn't have cared less. Kind of mind blowing that every ID guy in the house wasn't in there.

Luigi Colani came one day, and brought a bunch of his cars and stuff. He did a better job of packing the house at his lecture. But he's kind of a nut ball in a Dali kind of way. For a designer he's pretty far out there. Nuccio Bertone brought a bunch of his cars to one of the graduation ceremonies. I also got to meet Alex Tremulis, the designer of the Tucker automobile shortly before he died. Peter Brock the designer of the Cobra Daytona Coupe was there as well. I've crossed paths with Peter a few times since.. the last time we were both shooting the now infamous car races at RFK stadium here in DC. Keith Haring came and did a mural in the stairwell shortly before he died. Some serious people were floating through Art Center on a fairly regular basis.

Possibly foreshadowing my art crit work, I meet Richard Meier after his guest lecture one night. That was hilarious. As I tried to ask him a question about how he saw the marriage of International Modernism and Organic Modernism in his work.... He had CLEARLY, to MY eye, lifted large chunks of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoy, and Alvar Alto plasticity cues, and mashed them together. Keeping in mind those guys were at opposite ends of the esthetic spectrum of modernist architecture, I wanted to know what Meier thought of that mix, and how it all set with him, etc. I had a hard time getting the question out as a seemingly endless stream of sycophants trotted by for him to sign books, and heap yet more praise on the guy. Once he caught wind of the idea that I wasn't going to be one them, he developed a suddenly ravenous appetite for the buffet line, and all but ran away. A little too close to lifting the green curtain I suppose, but really.... it was only a question, and he didn't even hang around long enough for me to finish asking it.

I've always been a lecture junkie. I love listening to the A-list crowd gab about their careers et al. Art Center was great for that as well. The important point here is that with the exception of Haring, who I saw painting, but never heard speak, etc. All of these guys were designers of one sort or another. They opperated in the realm of 'stuff'. Yet it was Robert Longo that charged my batteries.. he was operating in the realm of IDEAS! There was no real turning back after that.

I got a lot out of Art Center in the time I was there. I had graduating seniors for housemates first semester. I saw what the whole thing was like beginning to end. So I didn't walk away empty handed by any means. I suppose the best way to put it was that I felt like a piece of a picture puzzle that didn't fit into this part of the picture. I wasn't completely out in left field, but I clearly wasn't at home in this part of the picture...I left Art Center and went to Michigan to take care of my dad for the last year of his life.

After my dad died I studied Photography at the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College. So now people are thinking ... Community College?? The department head was a Yale grad, as were at least one other teacher. Another teacher was a Rochester Institute of Technology grad (one of the best photo schools around). It was a fabulous environment, and I loved pretty much every minute of it. It's the people around you, not the name on the front of the building that teaches you.

Not surprisingly, I almost became a professional motorsports photographer. I was so close, all I had to do was submit a resume and some hard copies of my work to Gamma Liason (which they had already seen on line). Problem was, by that point in my life I had trouble with ringing in my ears. Race cars, rock and roll.. it all took it's toll over the years. When I was growing up they always said 'turn that down you'll go deaf'.... Nobody ever said anything about this ear ringing business.

I thought I was starting to have equilibrium issues (which, thankfully, went away). There is a particularly nasty form of tinnitus that attacks your equilibrium as well. It kind of put the fear of God in me. I had to be an adult and tell myself ... standing next to a race track with screaming cars whizzing by for the next twenty years probably wasn't the smartest move. The more your ears get damaged, the more easy they are to damage.. and it's all permanent. Ear ringing sounds like a minor thing until they start ringing at speaking volume for months at a time. It can drive people to suicide. It's really not something you want to toy with too much. The decision to walk away from that was all the more easy when I stepped back and saw that for every slot there were a thousand other guys who wanted to shoot race cars as well... and none of them got paid for beans.

At any rate. Somewhere along the line I got the Jones to start drawing again. Sought out an open studio situation. I'd had enough classes for a lifetime by then. I just needed a model and practice time. I really think you mostly teach yourself anyway. The further down the line you go, the more true that becomes. I found one drawing group.. then two such set ups in the DC metro area. I started going... and some innumerable years later, still go... although that is tapering off a good bit of late.

There was a small start up arts organization here in Falls Church that I, and others, were trying to nurture along. Seemed an endless head banging affair. They had a meeting about furthering things along. It was pretty clear that the PR ball wasn't even being picked up, much less dropped. I suggested somebody go to the local paper about coverage.... where by, that ball bounced right back in my face, and I was appointed the task of doing such. Me and my stupid ideas... keep my mouth shut once in a while, I should.

Next thing you know I'm writing a weekly arts column. At first it was just posting events and such. I'd sneak in some commentary here and there. Then one day I just said to hell with it, and wrote a review. Nobody at the paper complained .. so I wrote another one.... and another one.... Before you know it one of the venues getting reviewed offered me a photo to go with it. So I submitted it.. and they ran it.... Well, at that point there weren't any more hurdles to clear... we were off to the races. Mind you, I was doing this for the low, low, low price of free... so what were they really going to say anyway?

After about three years of that, I'd had enough of it all, and was ready to walk if I didn't get paid. Community service is fine and all.. but this was eating an enormous hole in my life. I got paid a minimal salary after that. And by minimal, I mean just next door to free.

So, by and large, that's how I got here. I think in some way you are born to do things. And if you get off track the powers that be upstairs will throw road blocks in your way until you get on the right path. Sometimes you can put enormous amounts of energy into something, and you can't make it work no matter what you do. Then you get in another situation, and it's like stepping off onto a greased slide it's so easy and effortless. Some of us get it right early on... some of us have to try every door in the building before we get it right."

How do you feel the act of creating art and writing about art differ?

"Well Jason, I have this theory that architecture, industrial design, graphic design, drawing, painting, etc, etc. all come from the same place. They are just different languages to express that same creativity within. And of course some us are multilingual, it's just visual literacy in this case.

Having said that... writing is different than making art. I've always been good at critiques. Just love them. It's one of the biggest things I miss about art school. So I have a natural affinity for it. It's kind of funny, but I can recall several instances in classes where I stopped the professor in his tracks with my crit comments.

For me, the art making is in the concept. After that, it's just the drudgery of producing the thing. I wish there were some way to just down load concepts out of my brain and have it appear on canvas, or paper, or whatever. I know a lot of people are 'process oriented'... I'm not one of them. I love the idea, not the making. That 'flow state' zen process tends to go into my driving. Give me an empty windy road, and I can drive nowhere for hours and hours on end. I sometimes think I'm closer to God behind the wheel in that sort of situation than at any other time in my life. So I understand the 'process' folks from an intellectual stand point... but it's not really how I make art per se. I see some piece of art that took a zillion hours to make, but has weak, or just plain dull, composition and no real concept behind it... and it just makes me want to scream .... literally.

Writing about art is a whole other kettle of fish. Writing about art has been one of the most difficult things I've ever done in my life. It is, in no uncertain terms, simply insane what you have to throw at it to do it well. How little it pays, for what it takes out of you, is just nuts.

You have to know how the art is made, and I truly think you have to be able to make the stuff to critique it. Otherwise you can't know how difficult a movement is. You can't really appreciate genius when it crosses your path unless you can do the stuff.

We all understand that Albert Einstein was a genius... because people who know math tell us he was. But the average person would think his math equations were gibberish if we ran across them in a drawer.

There is a palatable difference between artists/critics, and non-artist critics.

To write about art you have to know art history, cultural history, material history, sociology, and gobs and gobs of psychology.... human nature if you will.

When I'm writing a review... unless it's an assignment, I have to go find art worth writing about. And let me tell you, there have been weeks when I thought they quit making art worth looking at. There can be times where the whole week is eaten up by that task. At that point you're desperate for anything that can stand on it's own two legs.

At the paper I had a Tuesday deadline. I always found it funny when I was still looking for something to write about at 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon. Keeping in mind that the galleries are closed on Sunday and Monday. Most gallery owners are cool about such things... they'll stay late and get you what you need. Others have that five o'clock time clock in their heads... I'm closing the door in five minutes. All I could think was.. are you crazy??? You have no notion that if I'm still looking at this point in the game, I'm almost guaranteed to write about your stuff if it's anything this side of garbage??? ... some just don't care I suppose.

At any rate... after you find the art worth talking about, you have to take it in. It's sort of like letting yeast work it's magic in the bread dough. Waiting for the dough to rise before it's ready to bake.

People think you just look at some art and start writing. Indeed some may do just that. I can't. Or I can't come up with much worth saying on the fly like that. So it all has to percolate in the back of my head first. You have to keep in mind we're taking about writing an essay about it, not just some crit comments.

Then at some point I get the gist of it all... what it means to me. How I see it, how it relates to the world as a whole, etc., etc.

With that frame work in mind, now I have to search for linguistic hooks in the same way that I suppose a song writer does. You have to organize the thoughts in your head.. and really for the most part the thing is basically written in my head before I ever touch the keyboard.

There is an old story about Frank Lloyd Wright, one of my design heroes, the story goes that he was commissioned to design what would become Fallingwater by Edgar J. Kaufmann. I'm a little fuzzy on the exact particulars at the moment, but I recall it as FLW was taking a lot longer than Kaufmann thought necessary, and he wanted to see some plans. May have been some stalling by Wright in the mix there. One day Wright calls Kaufmann 'Come look at the plans.' Wright's junior associates are a twitter... what's going on? He doesn't have any plans to show him..... Wright calls for some pencils, and these guys are sharpening pencils left and right as FLW lays down lines. The guy designed Fallingwater in his head! And he drafted the plans for it on the fly.. with the client in route!!!!

While I certainly don't compare one of my reviews with Fallingwater.... the process can be similar. Mind you, I have to futz around with words and make them fit... give it all a natural pacing and flow. The thing has to have a beginning, a flowing readable path, and an exit. Get those and you're done.

It sounds stupid, but writing reviews is mentally exhausting work. I used to take a day to recover from it all.... then I'd be right back on the treadmill trying to meet the next Tuesday deadline."

What are your criteria for searching out artists for review?

"It isn't artists so much as art. Everybody has their off days and lays an egg. I don't have any real interest in writing about that.

It seems fairly obvious to me, though some reviewers around town would have you wondering if I'm on the right path or not.... but to me... the purpose of a review is to flag art worth seeing.

If the work isn't worth seeing, keep moving until you find something worth writing about. ... If you STILL can't find anything.. list events, or just take the week off. There is no point in being an ass and hurting people.... my opinion.

But maybe more to the point of what you want me to say here.... I'm looking for technique, composition... if you park it in the middle of the picture field like a dead fish, it better be the best looking dead fish I've ever seen.

Other than that, I'm really looking for some over arching statement or revelation about the human condition. You have my attention, so say something worth listening to. Make me FEEL something.

If I have to read your artist statement to figure out what you're about, you're already in trouble. If you're one of those people filling your artist statement with opaque verbal nonsense you're tottering on the edge of oblivion.

Artist statements are one of my pet peeves. Along with galleries that don't have their hours, or closing dates for the show printed anywhere. You have no idea how critical that sort of info can be with a deadline looming. I've had to waste, and I do mean waste, an hour digging out that sort of info with say and an hour and a half left before deadline. It's crazy. Cut me some slack here, help me help you.

But as I was saying, I really hate artist statements. By and large they're useless garbage. Language should communicate, not obfuscate. If you want to play that game, fine, just don't come whining to me when I get the meaning of your work wrong.... mind you, the things are so notoriously useless that I almost never look at them unless I hit a road block in getting a read on some work. They really should be a cheat-sheet of sorts. If your art work isn't good enough to stand on it's own, this is your ace in the hole. If your art work can't communicate your message, and you can't type your message out in some form of modern discernible English...... well, you can do the math there.

I'm kind of old school about this stuff. It may come from my design background at Art Center. I had one ID teacher who reviewed our blueprints for the product we had designed. If he hit a snag, he would mention it... You'd start explaining... He'd shut you up with a 'Look, I'm in Hong Kong you aren't here... that's why you made these plans.. they speak for you.' You'd go through that round robin scenario a few times until the lesson was learned... and he'd hit a snag in reading your drawings, and you'd just stand there in silence taking the hit. You didn't communicate what you needed to communicate. Simple as that. Your job was to communicate, and you didn't do your job. Simple as that.

I hate artists statements so much I toy with the idea of making my own read in total .... 'I make art.'

If you're here to make beautiful pictures with pretty colors... have the spine to say so. 'I make beautiful pictures' is a fabulous artist statement if that's what you do. Creating a cover story about your version of Interstellar Physics, and it's Jungian manifestations in the endangered boll weevil population of Madagascar... isn't really getting any of us anywhere at all. It doesn't make you look smart, it makes you look like a pretentious moron with a spanking new thesaurus.

For me, the process of both making and viewing art is one of self discovery. Teach me something about myself, or the world around me, that I hadn't noticed before, and I'm about 9/10 of the way towards writing heaping praise about your work.

Let's be frank here. Modern art.. that is art made since the advent of the camera.. is about ideas, not technique. Modern art museums are full of fairly poorly pained canvases. It's NOT about exactitude. It is firstly, and lastly about ideas. If exactitude happens in the middle there somewhere.. great. If not.. well, that's OK. Pssstt.. we have cameras for that now. Ideas, ideas, ideas... feelings, feelings, feelings.

I know what a running horse looks like. I don't need you to paint me a picture of a running horse to capture the event for all time. That's what artists did before the advent of the camera. Try to do work relevant to this century... because I'm writing about art in this century.

You can paint all the running horses you want.. but I want to know what all those hoofs in motion mean and represent. If the answer is nothing.... then that's pretty much what I'm going to think of them."

How do you see the role of an art writer has made or is making a vital impact on the art world community both local and global?

"Not too long ago I heard a great way of looking at all this. 'The absolute last job a society fills is that of art critic.' After you have all the plumbers, and police officers, and factory workers, ad nauseum.. THEN you get an art critic.

It's partly why we're paid so poorly. You'd have a hard time making a decent living doing this, even if you write for Art Forum... now what does THAT say about the value there of?

I wrote, for the most part, in a bubble. You rarely hear so much as a 'thank you' from the artists.... big mistake. You worked your whole life to be able to turn out work worth writing about.. and you can't say 'thanks' when somebody does.... roll eyes here. ... and I must say, if you don't like your review, keep your mouth shut. It's just one man's opinion. You make art, it goes out into the world, and it lives a life apart from you.. like a child. Not everybody is going to have the same reaction to it. Just deal with it already.

This isn't to say that you can't speak up if you think some one got it wrong... but be an adult about it. Getting into a back and forth with a reviewer, parsing every word for signs of rejection is a bullet train to getting black listed. I have a few people on my list that I will never again write so much as one word about ever again unless I absolutely have to... it's just not worth the grief. There is a ton of art out there to write about, I don't NEED to write about your work. For what I get paid, I don't need to be doing this at all....

But back to your original question Jason. I don't know. I've never been wholly convinced that anybody actually reads the the stuff I write to begin with.... I catch wind of positive feedback from time to time. But the grief-to-glory ratio isn't even worth talking about.

I suppose I have to get back to the original idea that art reviews should flag good art worth seeing. I took it a step further and tried to educate the public scared off by modern art. To in effect expand the art consuming community. But I was writing for a general audience newspaper, so that was the appropriate thing to do, in my opinion.

In the way you probably meant the question to be taken.. I think the art critics highest calling is explaining difficult art. Making difficult art accessible."

What do you feel is the importance of art in our contemporary society?

"Artist are.. or can be.. leaders. Like the scouts of days gone by that forged ahead alone and found the passable trails for the rest of the exploration party to follow. Art holds a mirror up to ourselves and society at large. That's self awareness..... self awareness is always a good gut check to visit from time to time.

How much can art change the world... ppppfffftttt... How much has it changed it so far??? .. sorry to burst your balloon, but exactly that much."

As someone who is constantly analyzing artwork, is there a new visual art thread or movement you have been noticing taking shape?

"Really there is an endless stream of 'following' in creative fields. We all like to think we're these independent fonts of uber-creativity. In reality, we all tend to just tweak what's been done before. It's all evolutionary. Then once in a while some magic ju-ju juice is in the air, and bang a new counter trend is formed by the five guys on planet earth who heard the rumblings, and acted first.

The short answer is no. The long answer is... I don't even know what the current trend is. We seem to be at a point in time where almost anything goes. Things are all over the place. Omni-directional. Everywhere, and nowhere at the same time. You need boundaries to break new ground.. and I'm not sure I know where the boundaries are any more. I know where some are. It's sort of your job as an artist, if you choose to be on the cutting edge, to figure out where those boundaries are, and attack them.

I can tell you as an art viewer, I'm so incredibly bored with vacuous art that I almost think the next step has to be a move towards content rich work. But that may be an internal conversation I'm having within myself about my own art work."

What do you feel that an artist could do to better prepare her/him self for the art world?

"Self discovery is important. Willingness and capacity for it vital.

Short of some answer such as that.. I really don't think there is a path to follow. There are proven trails.. but this is a highly individualized business... you get there as best you can, by whatever means you can.... by whatever conveyance will carry you there. As a British friend of mine says "Any road North.."

For God's sake.. don't follow MY path.

Life is a process, a struggle.. we do the best we can, and that's that.

A good grounding in art history is a given. You are building on the past, or you will repeat it and be rightfully seen as an imitator. The Patent Office doesn't award patents to people reinventing the wheel. Inventing a new wheel... yes. Re-inventing the old one... no.

The art world can be a tough, tough place if you aren't ready for it. It isn't that the art world makes it tough on you. It's that the art world will keep kicking back reality, and if you aren't strong enough to deal with the real you, warts and all... you'll have trouble with that. I know of one MFA grad who can't deal with crits. They can't sit down and talk about their work without taking it all in as some sort of personal attack. That's bad. The art world is going to be a hostile environment if you have a brittle ego.

I guess we boil that down to ... grow a hide.

There's a story about Howard Mehring. He and some other DC artists caught the eye of Clement Greenberg. He takes the lot under wing and tries to nurture them along a bit. Mehring gets miffed along the way that Greenberg isn't giving him his due.... so he quits painting for the rest of his life. Makes some drawings along the way, but by and large just quits.

I look at the Mehring canvases that have crossed my path over the years and cringe. Hello.. composition 101, 102, 201, 202... any of those please... all of those please. Why he ever got any attention from Greenberg is beyond me. Maybe it was like Elvis, you had to be there.... The compositions based on letter forms are run-from-the-room-screaming bad.... to me.

Mehring had the eyes and ears of one of THE most influential art critics of the 20th century. What does he do?? Learn?? No.. he picks a fight, and quits. Dumb guy, dumb guy, dumb guy.... Don't be a dumb guy, grow a hide!"

How important do you feel it is for artists and art writers to get to know each other and stay within a close dialogue?

"It's a natural part of the interview process. I don't think it's totally avoidable unless you have no contact with artists and run your reviews like food critics do with essentially a bag over your head.

If you become too close to a reviewer you can run afoul of the conflict of interest clause. Some will still cover your shows, some will recuse themselves. Personally, I don't sweat it too much.

The problem for me is artists that don't grow. OK. I write a review about you.. maybe another one... and you don't grow... OK, so now you have a third show, what am I going to write now??? The way I work, you're dead in the water. Until your sail fills with air and carries you along to a different place I'm pretty much done writing about you. I can only say the same thing over and over just so many times."

How do you develop or come up with an idea or concept behind a story when reviewing an artist?

"The work does this for me. If the work doesn't do this for me... Houston, we have a problem here."

Was there ever a time when an artwork really moved you so much you found it hard to write about this particular piece?

"No, not really... Basically good work writes it's own review. That stuff is a cake walk.. or as much of a cake walk as any of this ever gets to be.

The bad stuff takes care of itself as well.. you just don't write about it. It's the 'fair to middling' stuff that will make you wish you never had to write another review as long as you live. That stuff can be torture to write about.

I suppose a different way of wording your question would be... have I ever become 'lost' in the beauty, or whatever, of a work....In a word .. no.

I have a really high tolerance for sensory input. Which is to say I can be overloaded with input, and still process it. I will acknowledge it, and then break it apart and reverse engineer the thing until I know what makes it tick. ... and I mean I WILL break that thing down until I understand it. Because if I don't understand it at first.. it's going to teach me something when I do discover it's secret. And I want that jewel in my bag.

The subconscious is a really powerful force. Once you get to a point where you understand that, and respect it's ways... it can show you some pretty amazing things about human nature and the way we experience the world around us. There are ways of breaking that hold a work may have on you. You just have to figure out the magician's tricks and you're home free."

)Do you have an art writer and critic community in the DC area?

"Simply stated .. no. For the most part, we know each other. Some of us gravitate to similar minds, and away from dissimilar minds.. just like everywhere else in life.

But, by and large, no. Art criticism is largely a solitary endeavor.

You almost want to avoid each other to some degree. You don't want to read another person's work before you write your review for fear that you will inadvertently crib something, even an insight, etc. You want your work to be your work. So the interaction between us tends to be oddly about the activity, and not, at the same time.

You know when you're watching a baseball game, and some batter gets on base, and after the play is over and before play begins again.. the runner and first baseman from opposing teams are standing there talking.... I imagine it would be a lot like that... whatever those guys are chatting about."

Do you have any specific directions that you either are planning to take or are going to take with your discipline?

"My art work .. yes.
My writing.. no.

I have a very hard time doing both at the same time. It just doesn't happen. As a result the production of my personal work has suffered greatly over the past half dozen years. Writing has honed my art thinking. It's great for all artists to do I think. We all see stuff and think.. boy that was rubbish, or man that was great. But unless we take up endeavors such as this, most people will never sit down and reverse engineer the thing and pull it apart and find what makes it tic... and that's a really important step.

I'm one who will hammer away at the why and how questions until I coax the Gennie out of the bottle. If I hate something I want to know why.. what about it is making me feel that way.. In this way it becomes just as valuable of a self learning tool as a great work that I really like....they both teach you about yourself if you are willing to dig for the answers.... which may be more of an answer to a prior question than this particular question.

Getting back to the question... I'm moving towards not writing reviews anymore. It's not a deliberate thing so much as a path of necessity. ... jettisoning unnecessary weight so the plane will clear the cliffs ahead.

At the end of the day... I'm an artist writing about art. I did not spend all those years learning a myriad collection of disciplines only to write about other people's art. Conversely... knowing all those disciplines makes me a better critic. It's a double edged sword of sorts."

) What important advice would you give to art students or young aspiring artists at the beginning of their career path?

"Seek out a worthy mentor and be a sponge. Attend lectures of interesting, and varied practitioners. Whether you like their work or not, an A-list artist/designer/architect/etc. can teach you things worth knowing... regardless of your particular artistic discipline.

Find worthy critics, and get your work critiqued along the way. Beg people to crit your work... not literally per se, but just this side of that. Crits are like a gift from heaven. You can learn years worth of info in five minutes in a good crit. If you already 'know it all' it's going to be tough to learn.

The real trick here is getting knowledgeable people with enough spine to tell you the truth, and you making them feel you can hack the truth, and enjoy and appreciate hearing their insights and opinions. Everybody is wary of doling out too much vinegar, it's your job to make them comfortable doing so. Crits from a mentor are a gift.. treat them as such. Crits are your friend, not your enemy.

As I've often said.. I never learned a damn thing from empty praise.

I've often thought that the most exposed position in the whole art world realm is that of critic. You lay your opinions out there for the world to see, and there is absolutely nowhere to hide if it goes south on you. You can be cagy and obtuse in the art you make, as exposed as you may feel, you are hidden to a substantial degree in most cases. When you write reviews... you are standing naked in front of the firing squad, praying they don't shoot. It's a good way to grow a hide, let me tell you. The point there being that even seasoned art people will shy away from taking that position in front of the firing squad. It's up to you to convince them the guns aren't loaded, etc. If you fail to do that, you won't get the crit you want. You'll get some pointless stream of empty platitudes that will teach you nothing.

One of the more important, and probably least done by artist ... Write about the art you see. Really dig into it.. blog, journal.. whatever, just write. You can access a different part of your brain through writing than you can just thinking or talking about stuff. It's a fact.

People think of graduating from school as meaning you know your stuff, and thus you are fully prepared for whatever comes your way. In actuality, what school teaches you is how to learn. The journey has only begun grasshopper....."