If You Are Willing To

It Was Great Growing Up A Nomad. To This Day I Still Love Hiking And Back Packing.

In 1971, Bossier City, Louisiana, There Was A Teenage Girl Who Was Pregnant With Her Second Child. She Was A High School Dropout And A Single Mom, But Somehow She Managed To Make A Better Life For Herself And Her Children. She Encouraged Her Kids To Be Creative, To Work Hard And To Do Something Special. That Girl Is My Mother And She's Here Tonight. And I Just Want To Say, I Love You, Mom. Thank You For Teaching Me To Dream.

I Just Think It's Really Important To Be Yourself And Not Trying To Be Something You're Not.

I Wanted To Be A Visual Artist Because I Grew Up Around A Lot Of Painters And Photographers And Had A Very Artistic Upbringing. And I Fantasized About Being A Drug-dealer When I Was A Kid. I Thought It Would Be A Good Opportunity; I Knew That The Market Would Be Strong. Is That Bizarre?

I Come From A Visual Background, And I Grew Up Around A Lot Of Hippies And Artists. My Mom And My Brother And I Moved Around A Lot. We Basically Moved Every Couple Of Years, And I Went To A Lot Of Different Schools. But Creativity, For Us, Was Always A Way Of Life. It Was Never A Job. Being An Artist Was A Passion And A Way Of Life.