I have asked harsh questions of Art, sometimes bordering on cruel, "Are you any good at all?" and "What have you accomplished, if not nothing?" I have torn it down completely, answering "The world is just the same as if there had never been any art, or artists." Do we still have war and famine? And freedom, where is it? I found that art has been used as a pawn, in games of power, and in evil causes.
 

And I have built Art up, thinking that only through it, can the quest for knowledge about who we are, and how we fit, be accomplished. And that only art, relates to every other area of study.

I have been infatuated with some artists, and have come to passionately love others: Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh. I have been influenced by and felt deeply about: Andrew Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, Renoir, Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, Walter Phillips, A. C. Leighton, Georgia O'Keeffe, Emile Carr, N.C. Wyeth, Dean Cornwell, Winslow Homer, Tom Thomson, Charles Comfort, Charles Gagnon, Henry Moore, Miro, Stan Blodgett, and Robert Henri ( for his words ). This does not name everyone, for I have enjoyed art history from the very beginning of time, from the early cave painters to my most modern contemporaries.

Having searched among artists for answers to my questions, I have come upon others, in different walks of life who had them as well. Rudolf Arnheim the psychologist, and Thomas Albright the critic, (whom I wish I could have met) are truly remarkable in their insights.

And I have clutched greedily at their gems of wisdom, storing them away, bringing them out every once in a while to polish, carrying them with me, to feel when the going gets tough. For what I have found as well, was trails of courage, beyond anything imaginable, that restored us all as people.

I have come to understand what I'm sure many of them came to understand, that we constantly battle between good and evil, and that both reside in each one of us. Art is a tool, and a very valuable one, for either side.