Last night, as I returned to Pelican Bay, I was thrilled to find that the inmates had put together a collection to commission me to create a great mural for the recreation yard! They were quite clear that the subject of the work was to be "The 3 Stages of Heroic Man," and that I, as the embodiment of their rough and tumble heroic ideal, was to be the model for our Hero. You can imagine my excitement at such a challenge! I feverishly set to my sketchbooks, and after a sleepless night and not a few cigarettes' worth of paper, I posted my proposal in the cafeteria for all to see. The tumult was such that the guards fired several warning shots and were about to institute a "lock-down" until they too were transported by the genius of my design! Oh, the gaiety! If you had only seen the spontaneous bonhommie 'twixt guard and inmate, I have no doubt you would have wept as I did at the precious power of almighty Art to move friend and foe alike. Is there nothing that art (and the artist!) cannot achieve?! We are truly living on the cusp of a great age! What a precious gift it is to be an artist in these daring and heady times!
Oh would that I could stay and talk a very blue streak about the ecstasy of this day, but I must away to this great responsibility, my commission--my vocation!
