When I was at Hartwick College doing independent study work in performance art, one of the most important things I learned by doing the things I was already doing but now for school credit was that a large part of art, in a practical and pragmatic sense, is documentation and preservation. Sure, in the more abstract regions of conceptual art you might be able to simply talk about your piece and there is the simple personal satisfaction of creation and expression in making a work but beyond this you need some remnant - be it the painting, sculpture, performance video, photos, or whatever. Talk all you want about the landscapes you painted in France but if they got lost with your luggage on the return trip then there is nothing to hang at the show. This is an important lesson, regardless of where you stand on the issue, for the aspiring [professional] artist to learn.

This probably won't come as a surprise to most, but documentation has long been my achilles heel - probably because I am far more enamored and focused upon the creation of the work, enacting of the happening, etc, etc. However, I have, and continue to, improve - its a matter of pure survival really. If you are going to devote all your time and effort to something it had better, at least peripherally, be a means to supporting yourself or else you will rapidly be just another casualty of the world. Thus, I present in various forms and to varied extent some of my "work" broken down into somewhat convenient periods. Of course, I also hope that doing this will expand the audience which I reach and thereby affect along with possibly providing a better framework and context for understanding what I have chosen to do with my life.

In 1996, I moved to Albany to work on my PhD in philosophy. Almost immediately I began to have the same issues with formal institutional study that had driven me away fro the intervening two years from getting my B.A. I began to focus more and more on my transformation project and other artistic endeavors. By 1998 I was seriously performing again and 1999 marked my leave from academia and into the world of full-time professional performance artist. However, I did not stop working on things like installations or sketching. And, even though I am certainly more well known for my freakshow work, I still do performance pieces like those I did in college.

After graduating from Hartwick I moved back home briefly and then into a series of aprtments with friends in Plattsburgh, NY. I held a variety of part-time jobs, mainly working enough to save up money so I could pay bills and stop working all together for short periods and focus solely on my karate training. It was during this period that I returned to regular writing, in the form of haiku and started sketching seriously. I had already formed a pretty solid concept for my transformation and alot of the actual design work was settled on during this time. This probably marks the real beginnings of what I mainly do currently. I have a number of sketch books and collected books of haiku from this time that I still regularly refer to and draw from for inspiration. Focusing on karate and very limited means meant that I didn't do much in the way of performing or installations but it was a very creative period and I made notes for alot of future pieces. Almost all the performing I did at this time was fire manipulation for parties.

As is the case for many, when I went to college I found myself much more willing to act out on my ideas. I still had a notion, at least at first, that I wouldn't really be interested in or gain much from taking art classes but would rather simply "do art". This is also when I began to move primarily into performance style art. I would do things like create installations at night, hand out various message cards, or make [allegedly] enigmatic posters to hang around campus among other things. The piece that probably got me the most attention was Explaining Easter Sunday to a Dead Bunny. You can get the full story by following the link but be warned it involves a piece of roadkill and a mock easter egg hunt and has already caused a few people to lose their appetites. By my senior year I had gotten over the nonsense of not taking art classes, mostly because I needed to fill some empty slots in my schedule and figured I could get credit for what I was doing anyway - this proved to be a very good decision and one that has had lasting value in my life. I also owe alot to living in the campus arthaus for my junior and senior years and to my good friend and roommate Gregg Emery who often encouraged and helped me. I was also greatly helped by the experience of being active in my campus and local theatre productions.

I think I was a relatively creative child - though my ideas very often far outreached my abilities and means. The majority of what I did through high school was write, mostly poetry, short stories and skits. For some time, I imagined I might be a writer. The last big thing I wrote being the senior variety show play which was a combination of parody and regional in-joke satire. I also performed in various plays and shows put on by the school, worked on programs, and played in the band. However, I was not very active in art class which was mainly figure work and still life that didnt interest me too much. Also, I had something of a prejudice against the idea of an art 'class' - like most people at that time in their lives I let my 'high minded notions' get in my way alot. I have a few things left from this period - some sketches, paintings from when I was very young saved my parents, but mostly things I wrote. In terms of my life as an artist, this was a time of alot of energy but little follow through.