My series "Daydreamin' Blues" came about from my need to take a break from making the overtly political and social artwork that I primarily am drawn to creating. Although my favorite themes to work with tend to run in the activism realm, the last such piece I made took a bigger toll than they usually do and I found that I was not only frustrated in creating this kind of work but purely burnt out. Combined with the increasingly disheartening news cycle and a few difficult personal situations, there was a period where it was difficult to create at all.

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I believe it is important to talk about the difficulty in creating art that can arise from living on the perpetual balance beam of life with the blues. As often as this balance beam can be inspiring and motivating, it can just as often create a struggle to work in any useful capacity. Even when going through the worst slumps though, I always find it fascinating to discover what begins to draw me out. In this case it was a combination of so many inspirations that gently pushed me to come up with this series. The amazing imagery, whimsical humor, and beautifully philosophical storytelling of Tom Robbins in his book Jitterbug Perfume was one. The unexpected, originative, soul-shimmying music of Rainbow Kitten Surprise was another. The endless, engaging, stimulating conversations with old friends about dreams and creativity was a third. And finally, the whim to see if I could create something out of the blues, using these heavy, wearying states of being to drive a new kind of series I hadn't tried before, rather than stunting the process altogether.

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Each piece in the "Daydreamin' Blues" series has a dreamer lost in a unwelcome world. Their daydreams are what help them escape it, even if only temporarily. The dreams are filled with rich colors, writings from Alice In Wonderland, fantastical beings or backgrounds - the kind of dreams that help us forget the world around us until we're ready again to face it.