I'll use this title (Artist's Statement), at least for now, but I think it seems pretentious as it probably makes it seem as if I'm trying to appear to be an "important artist." I just haven't thought of a title that is more appropriate yet.

I do believe that I am an artist. But there are many kinds of artists, and there are good and bad and great and lousy artists, and artists at every point in between these categories.

I don't pretend to be (nor do I wish to be) an avant-garde artist, or a famous artist. I have some talent, and I have a great desire to draw (and wish to paint, too, but I am very happy with drawing for now). I love to take photographs (not snapshots, but carefully considered photographs, taking into account all that one takes into account when drawing a picture but doing it in a hurry). I love to arrange things, adjust things, rearrange things, readjust things, look at the same things from different viewpoints in different lighting, and in different contexts, etc. -- endlessly -- just as I do when I draw, in order to make places I exist in (physically or mentally), and have some control over, satisfy me, inspire me, show me (and reflect) new ways of seeing and thinking about things, and so on. I need to do these things.

I am not independently wealthy (I am very unwealthy, in fact). I don't draw to make money, though. I could use some extra income (couldn't most everyone?), but that is not as important to me as drawing what I want to draw, in the way I want to draw it, and taking the time I need to take to work on it the way it should be worked on, and as I really feel like working on it rather than as a tedious "job" that must be done by a certain date. I do not draw well when I draw for others - I need to draw what I need to draw, in other words.

You may wonder (but of course then again you may not) what the purpose of drawing is for me. I draw because that's what I want to do more than anything else.

Sometimes I think about how it must seem absurd to some others that I'm working so hard at something that is apparently not leading toward anything except producing more and more drawings, and that I'm not that terrifically good at -- while at the same time not doing things that most people do - shopping for pleasure, going to movies, watching TV, socializing, etc. In fact those kinds of things are not of interest to me at all - save for the movies, come to think of it; I'd like sometime to be able to see some really interesting movies now and then, in a quiet place (here at the computer sounds good to me) . You can call me nuts if you like, but I believe that I'm more contented with my life than most people are.

I do sometimes wonder if this is the best thing I could be doing with the very precious little extra time that I have, but then I realize that I could never be satisfied with myself and my life without doing it; I absolutely must do it. This is something that I not only cannot help from doing, but I love to do (I am so very lucky to have something that gives me such enjoyment and satisfaction as making, looking at, and thinking about art), and I am sharing it via my website - This is important to me. There are some others who certainly will enjoy or at least get some new ideas or a new perspective from looking at one or more of my pictures, and that is a very agreeable thought to me - that I can give someone something interesting to look at and/or (this is most important) cause them to see something in a different way, as a result of my own thoughts and hard work (yes, it's hard work, but hard work that's richly rewarded by the feeling I get from having done something that I'm happy with, or see is improving at least). It's not only a pleasant thought to believe that others get something out of some of my drawings, but also a motivating factor, stimulating me to constantly work harder to learn to make better pictures, knowing that others will see them (though of course I would be motivated without having others view them; yet this adds to that motivation tremendously and also it causes me to look at what I've drawn as if from the point of view of others, once the drawings are on the site).

I want to mention that although getting older gives me some anxiety (there's a feeling of time pressure), it also brings with it more experiences, more reading, more exchanges of ideas and thoughts with the people I correspond with, and more thinking ... I'm always thinking; I often wake up in the night with new ideas or an "aha!" realization (usually after reading something that didn't really soak in until I'd had a little sleep) - and often more understanding of some aspect(s) of human behavior or perception - and so every day there is more of "me" and there are new or reconsidered and subtly changed ideas about asubject to express in my artwork, new ways of looking at things, new ideas/realizations about how things are perceived, and new ways of approaching and executing my drawings. It seems to me that every day, therefore, I am at least capable of feeling - and being - yet more enriched by what I've read and seen and drawn and thought about, and usually this happens. I am so lucky.

Jean - Statement updated May 8th, 2008