You are well known as a filmmaker, screenwriter, author and poet. Is visual art a new creative challenge for you or still more of a hobby?
This is an interesting question. I don’t think of visual art as necessarily a new creative challenge. Creativity is like a river and its tributaries. I started painting around the same time I started writing but received more recognition as a writer than a visual artist early on. Because of that, I focused more on writing. I had stopped making visual art for several years for a variety of reasons; then, when everything shut down in 2020, I picked it back up in earnest.
How do the different forms intersect in your art?
Everything I create intersects in various ways. The novels and screenplays I’ve written are almost all connected and form a private universe. The poetry I’ve written and that has been published is closely related to the visual art I create. The titles of many of my paintings have a poetic quality.
Place has always played a significant role in everything I’ve created, from a macro to a micro perspective
You talk about yourself as a nomad. What does the place where you make art mean to you? How does the place influence what you do at any given moment?
Place has always played a significant role in everything I’ve created, from a macro to a micro perspective. Being an artist in the United States, to being an artist in Los Angeles, to being an artist in Downtown Los Angeles, to writing and painting in a small workspace, all play a role in the type of things I create and the influences that I bring into my work. And what I’m doing now is different from what I was creating and what influenced me when I lived in Hawaii or Florida. I do seem to have an affinity for warm weather and sunshine.
What artists or movements have influenced you?
Jean-Michel Basquiat was the first artist that made me want to pick up a brush and try painting. Before experiencing his work for the first time, my exposure to art was limited to fine art painters and famous masters. And though I love all that, seeing Basquiat opened a door to new possibilities. His work seemed so radical and inventive to my teenage eyes. Soon after that, I was introduced to Rauschenberg and Twombly, and I experimented with techniques and found art combines.
...there is something beautiful, messy, and tangible about painting that I love
Currently, I’m taking everything in. Poetry, films, many different art styles, and just everyday experiences. I have been revisiting the paintings of Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, and Grace Hartigan lately.
What are your favorite visual media? How do materials, color, and form influence the creation of your artwork?
Film might be my favorite visual media because it combines many elements simultaneously to create a cohesive experience. Also, the act of making a film is a tightrope walk. Everything has to work together in unison to create something great. Painting is definitely my favorite visual media to create in, though. Because painting goes back tens of thousands of years, the very action makes you part of this continuum, which is incredible when you think about it. And there is something beautiful, messy, and tangible about painting that I love.
What is your source of inspiration?
Absolutely everything. One of my few ambitions in life has always been to live in a heightened state of inspiration, where everything appears to you as a moment of creation.
Do you have any artistic goals in your visual art?
I would very much like to be able to keep making visual art and pushing myself in new directions. Obviously, being in positions to show my work to more people and with a greater frequency would also be great.
What are you currently working on?
Regarding writing projects, I’m working on a noir-influenced crime novel and two collections of poetry, and I’m in the research stages of two feature-length screenplays. On the visual art front, I continue to paint or make collages as often as possible, including a series of larger pieces inspired by a particular song or composition I love.