There is a single sound that rebuts every piece of bad news you hear in the media and that sound is the laughter of children. ''Laughter'' because it combines the rational and the irrational; it spans the known and the partly known. ''Of children'' because children are replacing us; they are entering the world at the rate of four replacements per second. Every good or bad person you know has both an expiration date and replacements waiting in line to take their place.
I enjoy making art while children are playing nearby. I am a father, uncle, cousin and godfather to many and love spending time with them all. For years my studio has invited groups of kids (and adults) from local schools and neighborhoods to tour the studio and take safe risks, both creative and physical. Last year we formed a board and together took the first steps toward making a permanent non-profit adventure playground and community center. Our Second Sky project just received its formal 501c3 designation and has limited operations nearly every day of the week as we slowly build out the facility and develop the deep connections to communities and other non-profits who will use it.
For the past few years, I've been contemplating one of the paradoxes of life as an artist: you do your best and most generous work when you're being selfish and simply pursuing what you want to do in the moment. If you do it right, you are most selfless when you are selfish. To be a good giver, the artist has to be somewhat selfish, indulgent, and follow their whim. When I look up from the art I'm making and see kids at play at Second Sky, I feel more empowered to be selfish because good work is already getting done around me. And in being selfish (in the right way of course), we are all giving our true selves to the world and that's all we really have to give.
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