"I had begun the Pied Piper Of Avenue O in 1991. The work was a way for me to deal with all of the friends I had lost to drug abuse. Being involved in this work began to very taxing. I suffer from depression and while I was doing this work it affected me on so many levels. In time I had to shelve it. This was the only work I did which ever required putting down. In 2007/08 I had a very dear friend who became lost in drugs. She is so very talented and special. I know that if she escapes this illness she will do great things and touch many lives. Every so often you meet someone who has this light about them and drugs seem to slowly dim the energy and soak the soul of the person. This is why I began work again on this piece. While doing it I began to realize more than ever before that drug abuse is a bubonic plague of our time. Also, that if we truly examine the etiology of drug abuse we would have to examine our value system, and so many other elements of our society that it would be the equivalent of treating ourselves as the problem. Just as much as the addict. The fact that a human being would subject themselves to hell to try and find heaven or nirvana on earth speaks volumes on the human condition. I don't mean to over intellectualize but this work was a way in which a layman such as myself could try to portray the world I see around me." |
