oh, the reasons. there are so many.

and they have nothing to do with porn. they have everything to do with taboos. and that happens to overlap with porn.

... is what is depicted by this story. I want to live in a world where this just happens as a matter of course and no one thinks twice about it.

it makes no sense to me that so many of us are walking around this earth so ashamed of parts of our bodies that we had nothing to do with acquiring, that are just a part of being human. we all lose out living with this huge restriction.

but it's not just our bodies. it's basically anything that's just a part of life that few are comfortable discussing.

if you resonate with this world, feel free to share your stories at The People's Doily up on Facebook or at my blog or contact page, share a link to your work, jump in with a collaborative project idea, let me know what you think.

if I can share one hearty laugh with another person every minute ... well, ok, every day ... well, ok, every week, I wouldn't need to take my meds. well, no, if it's only once a week, I would have to take 'em.

ok, that's a very serious joke. I've never taken meds because I've always known deeply - as deeply as I could know anything - that good relationships and good humor are my drugs of choice. I will go to great lengths to search them out or create them when I need med-like relief. if you see a new doily from me, you know something was really pissing me off.

since there really is no quitting these drugs, there is no withdrawal. I cannot OD on them either. try me.

it's my way of coping in this world.

everytime I hear a story about a big personal decision someone made unknowingly based on the fears of another, or someone doing great harm to oneself because of some secret they had to keep, I design another doily.

an acquaintance tells me about how his wife divorced him for a woman. she married him to appease her father's fears that she was gay. she finally came out. because of her father's fears, she couldn't immediately live a life true to herself. and this guy in front of me was fooled for a while - and not pleased about it. all because of her father's fears?

many commit suicide because they cannot live with the secrets they feel forced to keep. because of the fears of others around them who cannot talk about it?

we all know these stories, sometimes painfully so. can we as a society really be as intolerant as we seem to be to have people pay that kind of price for that fear? I hope very much not.

I may not be able to help these people directly but I can add my voice to so many who are addressing these issues and affecting the tack our society takes.

it's the catharsis, man. making this stuff and putting it out there has allowed me to work through my stuff and get comfortable in this world I claimed I wanted to live in. I feel so much better now, thanks!

I have had to push through my own secrets, different than those above but no less personal, and find appropriate places to air them out with a trusting audience. to me, it just seems ludicrous that this is so hard to do in this enlightened society we'd like to think we are a part of. the residual effects of these decisions so many of us make have a long tail - they affect others in profound ways for years. so I try to push this boundary with stuff that also makes me laugh. if it works for you, then by all means hang around, share your thoughts, stories, creations.

each day I live, each statement I write, only a few of these reasons are accessible to me. so over time I'll collect more of them here.

my artist statement for my marshmallow book in the BABA show at Olive Hyde Gallery, Sept. 2010

more reasons are showing up in the faq.