“If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, then the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.” Joseph Campbell

“The role of the artist is to transmit to humanity the deepest experience of reality. Art is remembrance. It is love. It is like a sword that distinguishes between appearances and reality, or a cradle that reminds us of home. The purpose of an artist is to reveal the presence of consciousness through the medium of the senses. So in this respect the artist has a special responsibility. He or she has to simultaneously make manifest the ongoing results of this enquiry in form. So the role of the artist is to provide a way that this presence can be approached and experienced through the senses. The scientist’s job is to provide a true model of reality, a true model of the universe. The artist’s job is to provide a means whereby this reality can be experienced in a direct way.” Rupert Spira

“All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness. True creativity flows only from stillness. When stillness becomes conscious, the spiritual dimension enters your life and you begin to be guided by an intelligence far greater than the human mind.” Eckhart Tolle

These quotes are a great source of inspiration to me. This place within, “the zone” as some may know it, is the space where all creativity flows outward into the world as form. The door for artistic expression was open and readily available to me at a very young age. Even though I have been distracted and have lost touch with this aspect of myself throughout the years, I have always felt an innate impulse to return to it. This intuitive and natural state was never completely lost, and though I never knew how to explain it until more recently, as I put brush to canvas, fingers to guitar, pen to paper, a force far greater than myself takes control and is at play creating form out of formlessness.

Aside from many other life adventures, I worked in the field of education for over 10 years in downtown Los Angeles with at-risk youth. In early 2014 my wife and I desired to open a business felt compelled to give back to others in our community through our venture. We took a leap of faith and opened a 5000 sq ft thrift store in Historic Downtown Upland, CA. For a year and a half, we fully dedicated ourselves to the business and to the service of others. Much personal growth, and wonderful spiritual gifts were bestowed on us as a result, but as time passed it became apparent that Life was calling us to move in another direction. My wife and I felt called to give more time to our young growing family, and to return home to our more creative talents.

Life has presented me with a second chance of sorts – to explore myself within and create works of artistic expression once again. From my perspective and experience, the process for an artist is not a simple one. Going within to reach that place of vibrant alive stillness where creativity arises, is no small task. True artistic expression is a revealing of the inner self for all to see and to experience. It leaves one exposed vulnerable, which can make us hesitant to do so. This was an obstacle for me. I can now fully understand why it took me so long to come to this point in my life, where I can dedicate myself more fully to this purpose.
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