ACATALEPTIC ART

     i have been engaged in rearranging, decorating, changing, my environment for as long as i can remember. as i grew up, i learned this process is often considered 'art'. i went briefly to an 'art' college. i became disillusioned within this institution. i learned definitions, vocabularies, hierarchies, elitisms, all focused to create a separation of art with life. or so i was understanding my teachings. i felt alienated from the processes i had been innately exploring for my entire life. i quit school, got a job, started drinking and smoking. this lasted 2 years. it bored me.
     i moved into an apartment in the boston area with no telephone and no heat. i set up an easel in my bedroom and started to paint again. i recorded my room, my self, i began to search for what i had lost. a long winter with little social contact, breaking ice in my water cup, extra sweaters, cold fingers, and my oil paints seeded a new determination to understand what 'art' is and whether i was a maker of such.
     it has now been 15 years since that apartment. i have had many adventures. i have been the art director of a conceptual punk band. i have instigated, organized and participated in guerilla art installations. i have been co-ceo and sole ceo of independent record labels encouraging girls to be heard as well as seen. i have knitted one-of-a-kind hats for most of the punks in olympia, washington circa 1991. i have organized and managed tours for bands in england and usa. i have seen my insistence of the similarities of punk and jazz, craft and art, evolve from radical concepts to accepted norms. and i've only just started!!
     i'm still learning how to define 'art', how to understand 'art', how to recognize 'art' but i have never stopped doing 'art'. art is communication. the art of communication fulfills life. how do we know when the communication is successful?