Have you found other artists on the Internet like yourself?

I guess I haven't. But I haven't looked very hard though. It's funny, as a
TV producer, I've never been all that interested in watching TV. As a
documentary producer, I'm not really an avid documentary watcher. As a
internet artist, I don't spend all that much time on the internet. Time is
the problem, perhaps. Juggling too much stuff. It's almost like a luxury to
sit down and spend a couple hours surfing the internet. And I get
frustrated too quickly with the pokey downloads.

Is there anything about the way you produce your work that you believe to
be unique or unusual?

I think so. But, maybe all artists think they are unique. Because I spent
so much time as a TV producer, I learned how to write and how to tell
stories. Now when I paint, and draw, these activities are directed at
telling stories, developing a narrative. My show, "I've Got the
Tek-NO-Logical Blues" is centered around an ancient technological artifact
that I call a speed tile. This speed tile is comparable to a microchip, but
it is highly addictive, it has anti-gravity powers and it makes you feel
good (like a narcotic). The artwork and the story of a time dominated by
this speed tile and other technological absurdities, both developed
simultaneously. I would draw a picture and the picture would suggest
another narrative thread for the story. Or I'd write a story and the words
would suggest images and three dimensional structures.

The other thing is that I'm a media junkie. I can't stay on one medium for
very long. I guess I have a short attention span. I work in many media. I'm
fascinated by the way ideas are expressed, how the weight of these ideas
are perceived in different media. I created an elaborate card game as part
of the last show. It's called Digital Spoons. It's a take off on a kids
card game where there is one less spoon on the playing table than there are
players... like musical chairs. At the end of the "hand" the player without
a spoon is the loser. Anyway, I created this deck of cards on the computer
using Photoshop and Pagemaker software, reproduced it on a Canon Color
Copier and had it laminated. I created 25 decks of cards with speed tile
imagery, chains, propellor hats, sirens... the imagery that I've been
working with. I packaged the deck of cards in an elaborate plexiglass case
with handles and padlocks on it. I also created a couple of panels of cards
in which all the cards are displayed. And I framed each card individually.
Finally, I created a Digital Spoons Gaming Station, an elaborate four
person card table with chains and an ominous slab hanging above it. This
piece became a very successful performance piece at the opening of the
show. It was a kind of allegorical game in which people were asked to sit
down and play, but they weren't told the rules. If they were, somehow smart
enough or lucky enough to get a spoon, they won a free playing card of
their choice. The game, to me is like the technology we all use today. We
really don't have a clue as to how to use it, but we try. Sometimes we win,
but usually, we're frustrated by it.

Anyway, back to the point. This deck of cards took on a different "weight"
in each of these contextes. As a hanging wall piece, one at a time, the
cards are precious, special. As a deck of cards being played on a table,
they are almost a commodity. They'r just playing cards. As a performance
piece, they are comedy and drama. Fleeting importance. One night only. As a
package they become a scupture, the individual cards thems\elves, not
important any more. The panel displaying all the cards had the most weight.
I sold the panel in the show and also four complete packages and a whole
bunch of individually framed cards. The cards were kind of a hit.

What style of art really makes you angry?

Conceptual art that has no pay off. Here's why. I think ideas are cheap.
There are a million good ideas. It's the execution of these ideas that is
difficult. So much conceptual art expresses ideas without executing them.
The documentation of a conceptual piece has to be the thing that gives it a
place in history.

Do you ever expect to get rich/richer out of art?

I have to qualify this answer. Remember, I am an artist who works in many
different media. I've made a very good living producing and selling video
programs. I consider some of these programs my "art." and I hope to make a
lot more money on the television programs I produce. I'm writing a novel
based on the speed tile artifact so prevalent in my last one man show. I
hope to have this novel published and I hope to make money on it. Both TV
and a published book are mass media endeavors. They have more potential for
large audiences. Painting,, drawing, sculpture... have a more limited
audience, so I probably won't get rich off of these media. And that work
tends to scare or intimidate people. Who wants to have a screaming man with
a propellor hat hanging in their living room.

So, yeah, I have made a good living as an artist, and I'm confident that I
will continue to do so. I don't know if I'll ever get rich... but rich is a
relative term, anyway.

Was art your first love or do you have another passion?

I love sailing. I sail on Lake Michigan during the summer months. I love
voyaging under sail. I love visiting distant ports by sailboat, exploring
uninhabited islands (yes, there are uninhabited islands on Lake Michigan).
I love the challenge and discipline of minimizing the dangers of sailing,
learning seamanship, tradition, controlling a complex sailing machine
(low-tech) dealing with the uncertainties of weather.

Who do you feel has influenced art most this century?

Fine arts? Painting, etc.... I can't focus on one individual. There have
been many at different periods. Picasso, I guess would be my pick. Monet
before him, DuChamp, Dali, Then the abstractionists, DeKooning, Pollock,
Then Raushenberg, Rivers, Johns, and the pop artists, Wharhol,
Lichtenstein. Tough question.

Which medium do you feel is the current spokesman of the arts?

The print medium. Magazines like Art News, Art in America. They set the
tone for serious art. They are well respected publications and are
intelligently written (for the most part).

What would you like to be better at, and why?

Understanding media and its powers and capabilities. For example, the
internet. I'm puzzled about how to use it. Like any new medium, it is now
pretty much a communication medium. TV was at first, so were movies. They
evolved into entertainment media, then art media. TV is still trying to
make a transition to be accepted as an art medium. The internet has
incredible potential for delivering lots of information and making it
available top lots of people. But will lots of people access it? And to
what extent will they access it. It's like my cards. If they are available
in a package at the local 7-11, they have less perceived value than if they
are framed and hanging on a wall in an art gallery. (DuChamp's urinal) The
mass availability of stuff on the internet trivializes it.

And what are we using it for? Are we, as artists, thinking of the internet
as an art medium in itself? Or are we thinking of it as a place to show
art? As a place to show art, it's unsatisfying. The pictures are too small,
too low in resolution, too distant, too subject to the whims otf the
monitor they are viewed on. And the medium is so disposable.. so easy to
shut off, and walk away from.

I don't know. I would like to use the internet as an art medium in its own
right, not just show art that I've done in other media on the internet, but
create art specifically with the internet in mind. But where's the market
for that? I've noticed that every new medium that comes on the scene is
first used to show stuff from the last medium. Live stage plays were
adapted for the movie screen (still are) Movies were and still are the
staple for fulfilling the voracious appetite of television. Books are
adapted for TV and movies. But we often say, "I liked the book better than
the movie, or The stage play was better than the movie. It seems that when
an artform is adapted for a mediuim it wasn't originally designed for, it
loses something and is often unsatisfactory.

That's happening on the intrernet too. We are simply filling up our web
sites with stuff we created in other media. We're using it as an electronic
gallery. I'd like to go the next step and create an internet art piece. Of
course I have no idea what that might be. Does anyone out there know how we
might do that?

Thankyou very much John.