I was always a creative kid. I lived most of my childhood in an imaginary world where I played the adult role. I would spend hours by myself creating a curriculum for a classroom I made up in my head and had regular hours I kept as the grocery store owner in the abandoned building behind our house. For far too long I used my bed as a news desk and was a 13-year-old news reporter, solo anchoring the 10 pm news.

I’ve always been in awe of creative people. Of people with “talent” because I never thought I had any. I was kicked out of band class in 4th grade and that’s when I stopped trying. It wasn’t until the Summer of 1997 that I realized what my superpower was. That Summer changed my life. I was between 7th and 8th grade and it was when I figured out what I would do with the rest of my life. I saw a rerun of The Rosie O’Donnell Show and I could feel the energy through the tv screen. I wanted to do that. I needed to do that.

That is what I must do with my life. Provide an entertaining, fun, judgment-free zone where creative people are celebrated. I wanted to make the world feel how Rosie made me and millions of others feel every day: seen, heard, and loved. I created a talk show set in my bedroom and got to work. Every day I hung a sign I made on printer paper that read “ON AIR” and for 60 minutes I pretended to talk to the biggest stars in the world. I’ve been hosting that show in one version or another (guess who had a show on TV now and talked to real people?) but it wasn’t until I started working for the arts-in-health nonprofit, Hearts Need Art, that I realized my ability to connect with strangers and comfort even the most nervous person is an art form.

I always say most of my paintings are hung on the inside of a garbage can and that is fine by me. I love the process of pushing shiny paint around a canvas. I love how smoothly it glides, the way the light hits it and it glistens. I love the way I don’t know anything about combining colors so there’s always a surprise at some point.



What I’ve learned so far: art, in any form, isn’t about the outcome. It’s about the process. It’s about the distraction and the way it calms your mind. It’s about expression and vision and uncertainty and hope and faith and fear and grief and everything in between.

Art can be loud and it can be silent. Take a breath and just be still. Be silent or let all the thoughts and feelings fly through your head and then use anything from pencils to pianos to release it.