Home Is Where the Art Is

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It's been a strange journey. Ever on the lookout for a career with the least possible job security, I early on intended to be an artist, but back then if you weren't an abstract expressionist, which I wasn't, you didn't even think about it. There was something about making a person look like a person that had an inexplicable appeal to me. Besides, I had no idea how to turn my angst into blotches of paint on a canvas. So I drifted toward set design in school and somewhere in there the acting bug hit me. Once out of college I ran away to New York, no big deal since it was about a half hour down the commuter line from home, and became an actor. My parents, worried about the precariousness of my choice, urged me to write, so I figured since nobody else was writing a play with a lead role for me, I would do it myself. People were very complimentary, but I decided I was wrong for the part. I got the message. I was continuing to paint and draw, but I settled on writing as my main occupation since I didn't like it anywhere near as much, and my Judeo-Christian upbringing had instilled me the conviction that it was therefore more appropriate as one's life work. Live and learn.