(This is the last installment on this topic, continued from Words and Pictures I: Childhood and Words and Pictures II: Growing Up.) What I’ve learned from this double vision of the world is that the basic ingredient for visual art and fiction is OBSERVATION. If you’ve ever drawn a picture of something that didn’t turn […]

Check out Words and Pictures Part I, about my early interest in the verbal and the pictorial. My family loved to read. As we reached high school, paperback books often went the rounds, with each reader initialing the inside cover. When the book had been read by everyone, it landed in a box by the […]

Just so you know, any photo or visual art you see here is mine, unless otherwise indicated. Pictures are as essential to my creative work as words are. In fact, the two hold hands every step of the way. Let me explain: I’ve always struggled between the language of words and the language of pictures. […]

Say you have a vision. Something original, exciting, and scary. Perhaps you want to do something new. I’m not talking about having toast instead of yogurt for breakfast; I’m talking about one of those ideas that tends to sit in the mind for a while, that thrills and terrifies, and then more often than not […]

The bluebird nest in our yard this summer set me thinking. The eggs were stunning: the brilliant blue of a Lake Tahoe sky in a smooth, elegant shape to fit the palm of the hand. Just like an idea for a story. It often seems marvelous – even perfect — when first conceived. But it […]

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