Valium for Breakfast
May 15, 2004
While Valium may be an effective band-aid, an emotional painkiller, creative production contributes to the actual healing process. In an era of political turmoil, personal grief, social chaos, poverty and overwhelming debt, and spiritual crisis, art heals.

In my series, Surfaces I examine the societal hunger for external perfection and the emptiness it reflects. Beauty is a form of empowerment, yet our obsession to ‘feel better about ourselves’ could be better channeled through Buddhist philosophies of compassion and acceptance, or Christian principles of kindness and humility. Vanity should be fun and creative, but our compulsive consumption neglects the truth that all are equal and that it’s the inside that counts. Despite the Botox, the sick Swan reality shows, and the billion dollar diet industries, we are still overwhelmingly fat and ugly, and worse, emotionally bankrupt. Appearances matter- but far less than forgotten intimacies of accepting one another as we are. Even Madonna concluded after decades of ego promotion that compassion and acceptance are life sustaining. Inner versus outer beauty is hardly an original frontier in philosophy, but this age-old question merits continual expression. In Surfaces, I examine carefully our obsessive consumption. The more we consume, the emptier we are.

Paradoxically, yoga and meditation teach us to become one with ourselves and with the universe by emptying the mind. Spiritually, emptying the mind and finding stillness can remove the hungers that drive us and bring us closer to peace. Emptying ourselves of extraneous chaos allows truth and authenticity to fill the holes. By reaching into inner space, we connect to the universe. The Orbs series express with a very soothing lack of complexity the serenity that can be found. The Orbs represent the planets and examine our relationship to the cosmic. They mimic the gentle, loving bubbling effect of glimpsed paradise and cosmic unity. Yoga, Ecstasy, and indigenous botanical mind expansion are all sociologically explained in religious terms as the need of the soul to empty itself of self-absorbed ego to connect with space and time.

In Life Imitating Art magazine, I described my collages. “In my art, I manipulate markers of cultural identity such as advertising, celebrity, images, poetry, and art. By removing these tokens from their context, I add, take away from, or alter their meanings. Only by playing with different ideas can we be certain that we are thinking for ourselves….Creativity means having a vivid, intense life, and it is the birthright of everyone.”