The more experience a person has, the more simplicity is profound.
- Keith Jarrett, pianist

I’ve been a searcher and seeker all my life. More than anything else, that search is for the essence of life, for the juice of life. What do you have left when everything frivolous, extraneous is boiled off, removed? When the self-delusion is removed? The petty fears and desires are removed? Under everything is a harmony of opposites, a peace. Other than that, the answers may be unknowable.

Hints at answers exist in wild nature, at least for me. There are also some hints in Zen Buddhism, and its Taoist roots, in particular how those spiritual practices relate to the beauty and mystery of wild nature. And the answers are inside us. I can’t tell you what they are, but when you paddle the length of a wild river from its narrow beginnings to the mighty ocean, when you walk mountain trails for days and months, when you listen, really listen, to birdsong, you sense that there is something going on that is way more significant than the concerns of human beings, of our petty delusions, rivalries and pride. And it has a cohesion, a harmony and peace. Humans increasingly live outside that harmony. We’re just passing through.

In this search I’ve been on, I’ve lived in the northern Canadian wilderness with indigenous peoples, fought forest fires with them. I’ve paddled long distances alone on Lake Superior and rivers and lakes all over North America. And I’ve been engaged in a variety of businesses. I haven’t worked for anyone since I was seventeen other than as an independent contractor or on commission. I’ve read thousands of books, interviewed hundreds of people, and poured my heart into my art for thirty years. As Cervantes said, all roads lead to a common destination, and that is the grave, but some paths give you energy and some take it away. I’ve made a real effort to experience life in a deep way.

Living life in a deep way involves taking on risk. I’ve continually put myself in situations and careers where unpredictable things happen. On the edges of the human enclosure you experience life in a deep way. If we’re not taking risks, calculated risks, we’re not getting everything out of this precious gift called life we might otherwise. My comfort zone makes me bored and uncomfortable.

Part of living life this way is experimentation. I’m constantly trying new techniques, new materials and new ideas with my art and writing. I’m constantly trying to go deeper. Where is the essence of what I’m trying to say or explore? What can I remove from this work of art, whether it be painting or writing, without sacrificing its message? If I took three brush strokes to express something, I wonder if only two might accomplish what I’m after in a more profound way.

Underneath the chaos is harmony, simplicity, peace. To express those in one’s art and life are efforts worthy of the gift of life.