Recently, my computer died. Not slowed down. Not threw a little tantrum and needed a restart. It died. Along with it went nearly six months of files that had not yet made it into my regular backup. I was getting close to backup time, but apparently the computer and I had different opinions about how much time I had left. There were business files, important papers, works in progress, and photographs of handmade artwork. Some of those things can be recreated. Some may exist in bits and pieces...

Everywhere we look, AI is creating reports, images, movies, ads—it is everywhere. So how do you know when you come to my site if I have used AI? The easiest answer is: ask me. I will tell you. AI is not my go-to for creating this site or the work on it. Yes, my website might look far more polished if I turned the design over to AI. It could probably offer me better colors, layouts, decorations, and all sorts of fancy things. But then it would not be entirely my vision or my work. Have I used...

Some of my paintings looked like they were completed during a Carolina hurricane. After staring at the mishmash, I realized those awkward paintings often taught me more than the pretty ones. "Whoa!" you may say. "How can that be?" Let me explain what I mean by ugly. I'm not talking about art that's bad. I'm talking about art that isn't trying to win a beauty contest. When someone is learning a new creative skill, the results can be messy. Imperfect lines, spilled paint, pastel smears, or a...