a little after 5pm on a friday, 7 university art students 
walked through the old gate and the old wooden door 
and up the old wooden stairs to my studio…

i wanted to talk about living in NYC
i told them to remember that their time will come
and they needed to be ready for it.
the right eyes and the right handshakes will happen
maybe not in a year or 2, but maybe in a decade or 3
someone will recognize what you've always known.
you just have to keep it going until it all comes together...

as a young poet i had no idea
i'd one day be a 46 year old painter.

i don't know how i got here but i made it to this place
and this point on the compass of all that i've lived through
and for the most part i'm smiling…

i told them to make sure they had a job
that paid for the paint and the walls of a studio.
luck is beautiful though never to be trusted.
i wanted to tell them that there is a responsibility to spend money.
if 500 sq. feet is almost 2 grand you can't sweat 10 bucks.
even when you're broke it's important to know
you can't be afraid to spend money if you have it.

one artist's thrift is another artist's lost chance.
the city is still hard and those taxis are there for a reason...