Being a "cutting edge" digital artist (as the promotions say, not me), I work in both still and moving digital art mediums. I am currently getting my digital art exhibited on the web and various galleries and exhibit halls in the Twin Cities and working on digital art pieces on my Mac G5 double duo.

To be totally honest, my Macalester education and experience taught me virtually nothing that I needed to know as far as wisdom or skills to survive in the real world. Everything I do to earn an income and everything I know of personal value came from personal experience and self-teaching. Actually, what I know (that is of any real significance in dealing with the harsh realities of existence) is that I know nothing — where we came from, why we are here (or even if we belong here) and where we are going. If there are any resolutions to this conundrum, I found them nowhere at Macalester. But that's not Macalester's fault. True knowledge could simply be unknowable in this plane of existence.

What I've learned after leaving Macalester is that religion, science, philosophy, no conventional, unconventional or experimental discipline can provide or has ever provided anything other than conjecture, theory, altered or heightened (but temporal) awarenesses and fairly tales, in their self-proclaimed "correct" disciplines to answer these most critical questions.

Take science. Einstein's notions are on the wane and quantum physics is taking their place – a prime example of how science discredits itself by disproving its own "discoveries" with consistency and vengeance.

Life has taught me that if I know anything, I know nothing of substance with respect to the real questions few of us have the sensibilities to admit, not only exist, but, inexorably, drive the human race into essentially subhuman action and behavior.

The only activity that at least brings some positive/constructive meaning and purpose to my life is art. We live in a mystery that no one, at least with Stone Age tools in hand, is capable of resolving. I approach art in the context of this mystery in which we exist.

I know not what I will end up with when I start an art piece. It remains a mystery even when my work takes me to a point where I feel satisfied I've created my own personal mystery that I can ponder for a time before moving on to the next mysterious project.

Art is my religion but not my "god". God is like air. You can't see it directly but it affects things in many ways all the same. Anyone who denies there is a divine entity that created all of existence and put it in motion according to divine plan is essentially denying the presence of air.

If humanity were truly god-centric we would have no mystery, no war, no crime, no lies, no delusions, no environmental crises, no self-destructive behavior, no "evil", no "devil" and one spiritual discipline whose purpose is to reveal our true purpose, our true origins, and an answer to the most mysterious component of the mystery: “Why?”

We would not be deluded into believing that data is knowledge, that knowledge is wisdom, that faith is proof the tenants of any spiritual discipline are truth.

I learned nothing of these notions at Macalester. Could have just been me. Could have been Macalester. Could have been both — another mystery that will likely go unsolved.

My Mac Memories: I have no affinity or especially fond memories of my time at Macalester. Mostly what sticks in my mind is living in an old house on campus (then called Rice Hall) with Tim O'Brien, Bruce Dean, Chet Copeland, and Craig Pheiffer, listening to Bob Dylan songs and hating my choice to take Macalester's pre-med curriculum. I changed to an art major my junior year.