Artist Statement
It was a long time before I realized that green lollipops were not made from caterpillars.
My father told me this and I believed him. Later he confirmed his story by showing me some live, green caterpillars and bringing home some tequila candies, the ones with the worms in them, home from one of his business trips. This is the environment that I grew up in. Lying was an everyday occurrence. There are many euphemisms that make lying sound like a perfectly reasonable pastime; storytelling, spinning a yarn, “tellin” a tall tale. In fact there is a long tradition of Southern liars, historians of the mundane. Many of the South’s great writers fit into this category. As a result of being immersed in this environment I’ve come to excel at, and enjoy lying too.
Unfortunately I’m not blessed with a gift for words. Don’t get me wrong, I can tell a good story when the mood strikes me. However, my abilities lie in the realm of the visual so I have learned to interpret and tell my stories that way. I feel a responsibility to record the stories of my life. This is not pure vanity. The tapestry of my everyday is threaded with the stories of my friends and family. Every family has its historian or folklorist; I am that person for this extended “family” of mine.
All good folk tales have a history, a heart of truth, that’s what makes them believable. With out that truth, the stories, those lies are just mean. The best stories have a history, a provenance, which gives them some gravity. So when I told my son all about green lollipops he ate it up and I completed a cycle that I hope one day he will continue.
