What’s better then having both respond?  Shawn’s answers are first, with Umar’s after the slash ‘/’

UPDATE: Shawn and Umar are also interviewed in the Hudson Valley Online Press online.

What is your favorite word?
Creative/Achievement

What is your least favorite word?
Impossible/ Shouldn’t

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Creatively, I’m turned on by images and style. Also, any thoughts that can be turned into an image creating some type of movement and or emotion. Spiritually and emotionally words pick me up. Great sayings, truth, poetry, reading. All the words that put thoughts in the mind to spark an idea. To make you see things caused by being aroused mentally. To impregnate an idea giving birth to action(s). / I get turned on creatively when hearing a song or poem about someone’s struggle.

Tell us about your earliest memory that led you to becoming an artist.
In grade school I used to draw a lot. I always wanted to do something in art, in some way or fashion. Before my teen years I could draw pretty good and during my teen years I was dj’ing parties in peoples apartments. / My earliest memory was at 6 years old hearing a story by Edgar Allen Poe.

What kind of space do you like to exist in when you are working?
Right now I’m working in a very small space in the corner of my bedroom. It is definitely not enough space. I would love to work in a space were my desk is as wide as a table, 2 flat 24’ monitors, a small monitor for color correction, and control console in the middle, hidden Mac Pro running the latest Final Cut Studio, sleek grey walls, sexy black furnishings, dimmable lighting hovering over the desk… I’m sorry. See where my thoughts go. / I would like to work in an artsy café, however I typically write at home or at my job.

What inspirations do you draw on in Orange County or the Hudson Valley?
This area is not in abundance in media, so that inspires me to do more. To do our part in making this area more interesting by showcasing some of the area’s landscapes, talents and potentials. For us, it doesn’t matter where you’re from or where you at but what you can do with whatever you have, wherever you’re at for a better tomorrow. / The people in the Hudson Valley are much different then the people I grew up with in the city, so I would say the personalities I find here, I draw inspiration from.

What have you learned from other artists in the area?
Other artists are doing their thing. They are putting in their time and loads of efforts. That is a key thing for all artists to do something. Failure is only when one doesn’t apply anything. We’re learning to network and do more work. / I’ve learned to take some creative risk and to be open to new ideas; just because it’s not what you might of imagined doesn’t mean it’s not right.

What profession outside of the arts would you like to attempt?
Outside of the arts!? I would like to be some sort of teaching profession maybe. To help other better themselves and engulf the potential that they have but ignorant of it. / Give others opportunities. I would love to be a motivational speaker and inspire people to dream, work for the life they deserve.

If you could no longer work in your discipline, how else do you think you would express yourself?
By teaching it. It is the main role of any profession. A teacher will always be a student but not all students become teachers. I would stay mindful of this so that I can always be grounded and helpful to others and they, the grounded ones, in turn help others, hopefully. / I would have to say abstract art. I really don’t draw, but would love to play with colors and shapes.

What are you working on this year?
Currently, we are working on the production of ‘StraightLand.’ Our first feature movie set to be shot in and around Newburgh, NY and the Hudson area. We hope to be shooting within the months. We are still looking for funding, which is our only issue at this point. We are also doing a couple of music videos for local artists, which will also help fund our project. Along with that, some shorts for some film contests we are getting into. So, for the most part we are trying to stay active, raise money, and get our feature movie off the ground and running.

M.E. Whitehill
Artist, Watercolorist
www.mewhitehill.com

What is your favorite word?
Joy

What is your least favorite word?
Sorry

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
The natural beauty of mountains, flowers, trees, birds, animals, insects, ocean,etc.

Tell us about your earliest memory that led you to becoming an artist.
Artists seemed to have a special insite to living freely. My Great Grandfather was a Hudson River Artist, Thomas B. Pope. I knew at an early age that I was born to be an artist.  I received a degree in Art and Art History from Wells College, where my German professor was also a watercolorist. His enthusiasm for the medium created my dream to paint with watercolors. The dream was on hold during the war years and because of the demands of four children, and in the 1960’s I took advantage of New York State’s Title II program to receive an MS in Library Science from SUNY Albany. After 20 years as a Librarian I retired in order to paint full time. My dream had come true at last. I found many opportunities to study watercolors with the masters.artists seemed to have a special insite to living freely.

What kind of space do you like to exist in when you are working?
My dining room or outdoors if possible, but I will soon have a rented studio space where I can work uninterrupted. The outdoor experience is sometimes frustrating because of wind, insects, interruptions from other people, the constantly changing light etc. The rewards outweigh these inconveniences. While you are working all your senses are heightened. You can hear the songs of the birds, hum of insects, music of the trickling stream. You smell the delicious scents of new mown hay, flowers and herbs, pine trees or the salty air of the ocean. You have a constantly moving panorama of clouds, shadow shapes, other people going about their work and you notice minute details of rocks, flora and fauna. Being able to reach out and touch the natural world lifts you to another level of joy. Just don’t touch the poison ivy.

What inspirations do you draw on in Orange County or the Hudson Valley?
The Scenery has endless possibilities and the history of previous great Art is inspiring.

What have you learned from other artists in the area?
Where to paint, where to exhibit and how to publicize my work as well as many opportunities to learn new techniques. I like to paint with another artist if that is possible as it is more fun to have someone to share a picnic lunch, and a critique from a fellow artist is very helpful. As a memberof the LHVPAP, Lower Hudson Valley Pleine Aire Painters I have a chance to paint with a group of artists at designated locations.

What profession outside of the arts would you like to attempt?
I’d love to try web site designing.

If you could no longer work in your discipline, how else do you think you would express yourself?
I’d write memoirs.

What are you working on this year?
I am hoping to try a different medium.

M.E. Whitehill is showing at Back Room Gallery, 475 Main St, Beacon, NY with an open reception 8 August 6-9 pm.  Also, through August 28, 2009 Plein Air Garden exhibit at SUNY Orange, Middletown, NY – Orange Hall.

What is your favorite word?
blurting

What is your least favorite word?
abnormalities

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
I think it was John Cage, who once said “a good artist is a good observer.” I observe, and free form doodle (that’s the fluxust in me), and ideas happen. I’ll have a word in my head, and then I just go till my hand hurts, or the phone rings. And disrupts me.

Tell us about your earliest memory that led you to becoming an artist.
Having a grandmother who made her own clothes, a grandfather who would build bbq grills out of beer kegs, and a father who was a musician. It’d be hard to say…I guess the urge to create was always around. From my 1st avant-garde tree fort to my latest pen and ink.

What kind of space do you like to exist in when you are working?
Usually on my bed, with the record player goin’ round. They go hand in hand for me. I can’t do one without the other. MY BED IS MY IDEAL SPACE. Like Pollock walked all over his art, I as well, like to be hovered atop of it….although, sneezing, can and has been, disastrous!

What inspirations do you draw on in Orange County or the Hudson Valley?
I grew up around here and I love it. Nice scenery, well in the small towns. And most importantly, lots of places to explore and get lost in. I’m partial to the Ulster side of things. Orange county is becoming a cesspool of corporate logos. And they’re mucking up the scenery. Support yer mom and pops…they built these towns. People forget that.

What have you learned from other artists in the area?
Honestly, I’m new @ this gig (not the creation bit, but the showing of my naked self part ). I met Suzanne [of Arts in Orange] @ the pine bush art walk, and she’s been very encouraging and helpful. Would love to meet other artists, and perhaps throw some shows together. Take it out of the galleries and to the streets. Or take the streets into the gallery. I’m not fussy.

What profession outside of the arts would you like to attempt?
The only two things that I really like are making music, and making art. I WOULD LOVE TO MAKE THAT MY PROFESSION. What are we without dreams?

If you could no longer work in your discipline, how else do you think you would express yourself?
Well, I am a musician as well…and a lot of times, the music intersects with the art. A song will influence a piece, or the other way around.

What are you working on this year?
I’m working on getting some prints made, and exposing myself as much as possible. I’ve been unemployed for awhile, and its really helped me in terms of producing my BLURTING ABNORMALITIES. I’m up to about 4 a month, which is good, because they take a lot of time. And making some networks with other artists. Time to take my gloom out of the bedroom.

The BLURTING ABNORMALITIES was formed under a strict diet of sucking in late night literature and hitch hikin’ through the past. the pen is mightier than the sword….but it sure makes my hands hurt. infleunced by the fluxists & their sense of humour….and various other odd-shaped figures…..it’s mushed together….clap clap for prehistoric doodle. the BLURTING ABNORMALITIES has been shooting up w/ junk culture since 2004……and has been seen @ the farfetched gallery in kingston, ny. & quimby and smith’s @ the pine bush art tour. they have also appeared in the poetry journal DAMN THE CAESERS.

What is your favorite word?
amparo

What is your least favorite word?
stop

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
invention, contemplation, and concern.

Tell us about your earliest memory that led you to becoming an artist.
Before I could write my mother would ask me to tell her about my drawings and she would write down everything I said on the back of the drawings. I still have some of them.

What kind of space do you like to exist in when you are working?
Space which is cluttered and full of books, tools, and collage materials.

What inspirations do you draw on in Orange County or the Hudson Valley?
The “flatness” of the black dirt country provides a “floor” for visual space which is not unlike the fields of Holland in a Flemish landscape or the water in a seascape.

What have you learned from other artists in the area?
That I am not alone.

What profession outside of the arts would you like to attempt?
None.

If you could no longer work in your discipline, how else do you think you would express yourself?
In music and words.

What are you working on this year?
I am expanding my “Bachelors” series of collages based on Marcel Duchamp’s The Large Glass. I am also working on a new book.

JONATHAN TALBOT: ARTIST’S STATEMENT
I am a painter, and after facing blank canvases for more than 35 years, I have come to believe that whether or not we write, paint, draw, sculpt, dance, act, sing, or play music, we are all the artists of our own lives. Our blank canvases are the hours of our days, our paints are our thoughts and feelings, and our energy is our inspiration. Sometimes we choose our own colors and sometimes circumstances choose our colors for us. Sometimes we use our artistry to serve those around us and sometimes we use it to preserve ourselves. Sometimes our efforts bring us fame and fortune and sometimes our creativity goes unrecognized except by those close to us, those we love and those who love us. And yes, sometimes we work in complete isolation. This is the way it is for artists.

As a child I watched my mother gaze longingly at the paintings she had done before she “gave up art” to raise a family. I learned from my mother that denying one’s creative impulses can lead to sadness and depression. This is something useful to remember in times like these when our failure to learn the lessons of history threatens to destroy our hopes for the future.

Observing artist Alexander Calder, the inventor of the mobile, interact with a group of students, I learned that being an artist involves being engaged with one’s community and the individuals in it in a comfortable and unpretentious way. This, too, is a talent we can all use in today’s world, a world in which the modalities of our interactions with others are often defined by the media stream rather than by our own best instincts.

Being an artist is about imagining new possibilities and creating new realities. I believe that the nature of tomorrow’s reality, balanced as it is on the fulcrum of today, will depend on whether or not each of us responds artfully and creatively to the challenges which face us. I believe that the more we exercise our personal and social artistry, the more likely it is that we will enjoy a fully realized future.

Jonathan Talbot: "The Policeman, The Priest, and the Cavalryman await their Companions", Collage, 2008

Duet by Jonathan Talbot

Jeff Flaster is an artist in Middletown whose work puts a deep focus on his life as a gay man involved in the punk scene.  Unafraid and uncensored, Jeff is very raw whose work borders the line of brash and intimacy.

Jeff Flaster
punk street art
Queer Punk Artist Forum
http://nomadicempath.deviantart.com

What is your favorite word?
empath

What is your least favorite word?
Shut up

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Expanding my knowledge & getting new ideas

Tell us about your earliest memory that led you to becoming an artist.
My grandmother showed me how to express my self being an introverted person

What kind of space do you like to exist in when you are working?
I typically do my art on my bed due to lack of room but my ideal would be to have a room set up for just being creative.

What inspirations do you draw on in Orange County or the Hudson Valley?
Being from here is my grounding point. To express all the ideas I get when I’m traveling, living & learning.

What have you learned from other artists in the area?
Unfortunately I have not been exposed to many other local artists.

What profession outside of the arts would you like to attempt?
Being a case manager in the mental health & social service industry.

If you could no longer work in your discipline, how else do you think you would express yourself?
Whatever is around, I will adapt.

What are you working on this year?
A bunch of new drawing that represent individuals & couples from a gay punk perspective

What is your favorite word?
Yes – Anyone can say no, saying “yes” is what it takes to make things happen.

What is your least favorite word?
No – Not much of a surprise there is it?

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Good music, sunlight, and having time to do things the way I want to do them.

Tell us about your earliest memory that led you to becoming an artist.
I remember that my father had a Polaroid camera and it was amazed at how those pictures would emerge. I still love seeing the images today on the back of the digital camera. It’s like a Polaroid all over again! Later in middle school I was able to get into a photography class and then my interest just exploded. I loved art but I was no painter!

What kind of space do you like to exist in when you are working?
I do my photography everywhere. The majority of it is location based however I do all my processing in my office. Nothing special but I always have music going when I am working

What inspirations do you draw on in Orange County or the Hudson Valley?
The Hudson Valley in the fall is simply amazing. The colors of autumn are tough to beat. We have so much variety here for subjects and locations that you can find about anything you are looking for close by. For me, getting out and exploring the Hudson Valley is a great way to find inspiration.

What have you learned from other artists in the area?
That there is more to the Orange County area than meets the eye.

What profession outside of the arts would you like to attempt?
I have had other “day jobs” and I was fortunate enough to be able to leave them and do what I love.

If you could no longer work in your discipline, how else do you think you would express yourself?
Speaking or lecturing.

What are you working on this year?
I have been working on collaborating with other local area artists. I enjoy the new ideas that spring up from these sessions!

A bit about Pete from his bio:

My interest in photography began at an early age. I still remember the unbelievable experience of watching a Polaroid snapshot come to life before my eyes. By the time I had reached middle school this interest had developed into a passion. With my father’s Pentax camera and two lenses I learned the basics of photography both behind the camera and in the darkroom. Seeing the images emerge in the developing trays was always a treat. I spent many hours experimenting with various combinations of lenses, films and developing techniques to find ones that fit the situation and make it unique and special.

Following my early days with pinhole cameras and darkrooms, I continued to advance my style and skills, and am now utilizing the latest digital cameras and post-processing techniques. Today’s advances in digital imaging have changed the way photographers create their images. Embracing these changes and the incredible control they offer, I have pushed my creativity and vision, better capturing those special moments and places.

Bottled Emotions

Billie Robson  a/k/a Art by Canace

Mixed Media Collage, Assemblage, Photography, Graphic Arts, Web Design, Etc.
Art by Canace – www.canace.net

What is your favorite word?
“Eclectic” – It encompasses such a widespread feeling of acceptance in design. Assemblage is my heartfelt favorite so to marry items that are otherwise different is exciting.

What is your least favorite word?
“Can’t” – I don’t believe ‘can’t ‘ is ever an option.

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Rusty springs and Dragonfly wings.

Tell us about your earliest memory that led you to becoming an artist.
It was one of those times when I was little and was expected to sit quietly that I was given a pencil and a piece of paper to draw on and hopefully keep still. I didn’t draw the pretty little house with the smiling sun. I drew my hand holding a pencil, drawing on a piece of paper. I think that may have been my first recollection of art and doing things differently than other children. My greatest achievement several years later at the age of eight, was winning a shiny silver dollar for the best Fire Prevention poster. I still have that silver dollar, and I still love to create, whether it’s painting, collage, assemblage, graphic art, it’s whatever muse strikes me.

What kind of space do you like to exist in when you are working?
Bright, airy and surrounded by nature and silence — my studio is just that, with many, many drawers full of inspiration. Ideally I would like to have more workspace.

What inspirations do you draw on in Orange County or the Hudson Valley?
Growing up in Orange County and the Hudson Valley afforded many outlets and sources for inspiration, whether it be nature, history, or other artists such as the Hudson River School.

What have you learned from other artists in the area?
To be true to yourself and what brings you creative joy.

What profession outside of the arts would you like to attempt?
As a child, writing my “What would you like to be when you grow up?” I wanted to be an archeologist … and still would find it very exciting.

If you could no longer work in your discipline, how else do you think you would express yourself?
I would go back to oil painting and tend my gardens.

What are you working on this year?
Accomplishing even one half of all the exciting ideas that are always at work in my head. Aside from that, getting more exposure and learning from those I respect in the field.

Jacquelyn Carter

What is your favorite word?
Om

What is your least favorite word?
Yankee

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Singing or playing the tambora or harmonium and singing Kirtans. Color, light reflections, silence, inner stillness, natural rhythm and beats…movies of artists lives…..merging with the colors and loosing myself totally in it. It is always the process and not the final outcome that brings me the most joy!

Tell us about your earliest memory that led you to becoming an artist.
Music was my first creative expression…watching TV and wanting to play like Liberace which led me to piano from the age of 5 to 13 years of age then into dance, ballet, & modern Jazz then into the visual arts. The visual arts really started for me in 9th grade. Pen and ink , oils & Drawing and painting people and has continued since then….

What kind of space do you like to exist in when you are working?
I like to have space (which I do not have at present). Typically I would end up having to work in a small area sitting on the couch or last year and the year before at the old Cultural Center in Pine Bush where I held Open Studio Night but, now they have the Cultural Center on the market and it is off limits. Ideally I would love a warehouse, garage, barn, large empty space where it would not matter if I left my work in progress pieces out and got paint on the floor……slept on a couch and woke up to go back to work on it or worked at night on the pieces. I love it at night when everything is still and the chatter and noise has subsided , most people are asleep and the energy is stiller…

What inspirations do you draw on in Orange County or the Hudson Valley?
Seasons, personalities, light and shadow, colors…..in nature, human interest stories and humanitarian causes, emotion and other………

What have you learned from other artists in the area?
That everyone thinks theirs is the best and they have nothing left to learn and are starting to crystallize….along with being Territorial. The free creative out of the box thinkers rely on the structured ones to organize and then become boxed in.

What profession outside of the arts would you like to attempt?
Well I am already doing one which is manager of the Pine Bush Farmers Market but if I had to attempt something non-art related would be having my own coffee shop….growing mushrooms or having my own small greenhouse.

If you could no longer work in your discipline, how else do you think you would express yourself?
Cooking, baking, landscaping…….

What are you working on this year?
Trying to make time for my art and a space and hopefully have some new large pieces. Seeing if I can afford to buy some oil paints which might have to be house oil paints to do a large piece or two on masonite by August….I have some ideas in progress….never short for inspiration or ideas. I need to finish an outside mural at the Shanti Mandir Ashram in Walden that is on an outside kitchen panel and go back over another panel that has faded because of the elements.

A bit about Jacquelyn:
1973-2009 I have been a working artist since 1973 exhibiting in various shows and galleries from Florida, Colorado, South Carolina and New York. I have worked in various mediums, from colored pencils, pen and ink, pastels, acrylic, graphite, computer illustration, 3 dimensional synthetic pieces and jewelry. I worked as a full time digital artist for a newspaper in Myrtle Beach for 10 years in the marketing department creating brochures and various promotional materials from billboard design, special sections mag. Inserts, logos, advertisments and holiday cards duratrans etc.

We lived in South Carolina for 17 years from ‘86 to 2003 and moved to Pine Bush August of that year. Since that time I have worked on a couple of small pieces which were displayed at the Unframed Artists Gallery along with some older larger work . My Husband who is a working artist along with myself own a house on Main Street, in downtown Pine Bush. Art has created many paths for me since a child. I have always been a free spirit riding on the waves of emotion and energy and magic and believing in things that are not always visible to the naked eye. I hope before my time is over on this earth that I can bring my full being into self-expression and give to the world all that my soul has to offer.

Steve Rubin
drummer.  Jazz, world, blues, R&B, soul
www.musicianspage.com/musicians/1139/

What is your favorite word?
Louise

What is your least favorite word?
No

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Natural improvisation.  A moment arising from honest inspiration. Shared connection of sympathetic minds and souls

Tell us about your earliest memory that led you to becoming an artist.
A drummer, winking at my cousin Marsha’s wedding many years ago.

What kind of space do you like to exist in when you are working?
One – Ideal space would be a semi rustic natural product designed loft space.   Two – One in Warwick where I now live, another in the West Village , NYC, where I  lived for many years.   The setting would have a visual aesthetic that promoted calm focus coupled with the energy of inspiration.

What inspirations do you draw on in Orange County or the Hudson Valley?
The visual of the landscape

What have you learned from other artists in the area?
The ongoing ability to be a better listener.

What profession outside of the arts would you like to attempt?
I would love to get involved in politics or be a psycologist.

If you could no longer work in your discipline, how else do you think you would express yourself?
Speaking, also my lighting designer side business.

What are you working on this year?
Promoting my  group, The Skye Jazz Trio to expand it’s performance venues.

Steve Rubin has been a musician for over 38 years. Steve’s worked in jazz, rock, soul, classic R&B and blues groups over the years, as well as playing electronic percussion, ( the Roland Handsonic). Steve continues to appreciate all music from classic rock to funk, old school R&B, disco, reggae, blues and that which falls outside definition. Having lived in Greenwich Village, NYC for 24 years, and he and his wife moved to Warwick in 2005. In NYC he worked as a player and drum teacher . Music for Steve is like a buffet of possibilities to enjoy and present for the right setting and venue. Musical influences in jazz range from Louis Armstrong’s hot house days to big band drummers to the great modern bop and post bop players inclusive of Philly Joe Jones, Joe Morello, Mel Lewis, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, and modern players such as Brian Blade and Jeff Ballard. Whether it’s Miles , Coltrane, Cole Porter or Keith Jarrett, Steve always looks to the lead instrument in form of piano , guitar or horn to establish melody and to lead the music, and sees his role as a supporting one. In the past 3 years he’s been leading his own group, The Skye Jazz Trio, and is thankful for having a terrific supporting cast of players including, Joe Vincent Tranchina (jovita.com), Steve Ash, Dave Smith, keyboards, piano, Bill McCrossen, Eric Lemon, J. Brunka and Jeremy Goldberg on bass. Warren Sirota, Ed Littman, Marc Daine on guitar and a host of other musicians that have come by to sit in or play sax, flute and vocals. The Skye Jazz Trio is a rotating ensemble of experienced jazz players and they have been in performance from all events from bookstores to NYC restaurants, jazz clubs, private parties, libraries and town events. The Skye Jazz Trio can be reached at (917)903-4380 and skyejazztrio@yahoo.com for CD, performance calendar and additional information.

Jennifer L. Warren
Writer

What is your favorite word?
Creativity

What is your least favorite word?
Conformity

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Being around people I truly connect with. I’m also inspired by the thought that we all have special talents and gifts, and that amazing stories are all around us; we simply have to be open to looking for them.

Tell us about your earliest memory that led you to becoming an artist.
I was in junior high school, and I was away at overnight camp. I used to entertain other kids and counselors in my cabin with fictitious, on-the-spot stories. Whenever there was any free time, they would beg me to tell a tale. I distinctly recall them telling me someday I was going to become a famous writer.

What kind of space do you like to exist in when you are working?
I like to work in a space where I can view the outdoors. I am blessed to have that in my condo’s office. Looking out my window, I can see a local, historic spot as well as a beautiful, wooded area. If I look hard enough, I see water from the distant Hudson River, nothing more amazing than seeing the sun set on it; I feel like I could write anything. Ideally, I would love to have a panoramic view of the Hudson River, one of the most amazing visuals I can conjure. If not that, give me the woods; it’s away from society and where everything is the most organic, pure, real.

What inspirations do you draw on in Orange County and the Hudson Valley?
I draw from the Catskills, the Hudson River and Lake Minnewaska, to name just a few. We live in such a uniquely picturesque and varied landscape, I don’t have the room here to mention all of those potential writing inspirations.

What have you learned from other artists in the area?
I have learned from other artists that there is ALWAYS room for growth when it comes to your craft. Whether it be chatting with another journalist, attending a writing workshop, or simply attending an arts events, populated by creative thinkers, there are so many opportunities presented daily; you just have to be open to embracing them.

What profession outside of the arts would you like to attempt?
Lately, it has been a nagging desire to do marketing. The older I get, the more I realize that so much of my exposure, effectiveness, and success as an artist comes down to a knowledge of this field. I’m also drawn to marketing because I am intrigued by people- what makes them tick and their varying needs. It involves a great deal of psychology, another of my loves, and integral component to being a good writer.

If you could no longer work in your discipline, how else do you think you would express yourself?
I think people who have a need to express themselves always manage to find a way. In my case, I think I would choose music, not playing an instrument- no ability there, but singing because it at least involves lyrics-words, so I would have half of the equation down.

What are you working on this year ?
Recently, due to the challenging times, especially in the field of journalism, I have turned to technical writing, doing such things as newsletters, press releases and bios. Although it’s different than what I have done in the past, it’s really broadened me as a writer. In the future, I aspire to writing a memoir, a genre and topic closest to my heart. Just as soon as I get the time, discipline and emotional strength to do it, I will.