Imagine

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

One day some kids cut through our yard and my step father went ballistic posturing and yelling
“ours not yours”. The kids kept walking. I kept quiet about my brothers and me, cutting through in the opposite direction when we wanted to get to the field with the big hill that had the best sledding. My house had an atmosphere of discord. I retreated to my room and my radio.

It was 1971. John Lennon sang to me. “Imagine there’s no countries”. My fascination with maps and charts and diagrams changed. Once I loved the aesthetic of a map; the colors and the shapes, but especially the order and definition of all the spaces organized into patterns like a quilt. Suddenly, I saw “our not yours” and I did begin to imagine a world without these constructed boundaries.

My abstracted landscapes often depict compositions inspired by old school maps with imaginary fluid edges. Here, the six panels represent the six places I have lived from childhood until now, New England to South Carolina. Where you come from, what you hear and see, shapes you.

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’ not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one.