I often wonder about the deeper why of making art. Not just the technical or aesthetic reasons, but the spiritual ones. What role does the artist really play in society? …

I’m trying to break the habit of reaching for YouTube or Instagram when I take work breaks. So I created a series of prompts to ask myself whenever the urge …

I spent some time over the weekend in the wilderness looking at the stars at night, thinking about how far away they must be as suns, yet barely visible to …

I grew up with my dad’s model railroad. It was classic. Tracks on a flat table, loops within loops. Neat but predictable. But when I was ten, I discovered John …

Smooth is nice. But in art? Too much ease can be a trap. When everything flows, it’s easy to cruise on autopilot. Friction stops you. Makes you pay attention. Forces …

I never rode a yellow school bus. Didn’t need to. My elementary school sat on the same block as our house. When busing kicked off in the ’70s, I got …

Back in the 1800s, Victorians had a thing for moving nature around. They called it acclimatization—the idea that plants and animals could, and should, be transplanted into new territories. Like …

A couple of years ago, I joined my friend Michael Tarnoff on the You and I Make a Thing podcast to create self-portraits in the style of Chuck Close. It …

For most of my life, I carried the guilt of starting too many things and finishing too few. Every time I switched gears, the inner critic showed up. Was I …

I live near the ocean in San Francisco. Foggy summers might make solar panels seem like a bad idea. But ours have worked great. Installed in 2008, and we haven’t …

Sulanharas Creek flows into the eastern end of Shasta Lake. Before the dam, it joined the Pit River and fed into the McCloud River. For thousands of years, the McCloud …

Grew up with trains. Not the real kind, though. Not at first. There’s a photo of me at age one, playing with a push train on the floor. Brio-style. Plastic …

Back in the early ’90s, my friend Bruce told me he’d volunteered on an Earthwatch trip to study black bears. He showed me his photos. I was hooked. I’d wanted …

In 1976, a blazing visitor lit up the morning sky. Comet West. I was in high school, just getting into photography. That comet? It hooked me. I grabbed my mom’s …

Shigeko Kubota was a visionary. She didn’t just work with video. She sculpted with it. Blending personal memory, Fluxus irreverence, and electronic media, she created powerful hybrid works that felt …

Back in the early ’90s, I had a pet ochre starfish. It lived in a 50-gallon tank in the garage. Room temp, nothing fancy. It was one of the weirdest, …

A friend gave me a copy of Painting Enlightenment: Healing Visions of the Heart Sutra. The book is deeply inspiring and has become one of the most cherished in my …

That’s basically how I feel about the current political moment. So it was heartening to see a great turnout at today’s Hands Off! rally in San Francisco. A tsunami of …

Do you ever wake up with an idea so weird and compelling that you think about it all day? What if the tufa towers of Mono Lake were made of …

People love to knock the Sunset District for its telephone poles. They’re everywhere, right out front, not tucked neatly in the backyards. Wires crisscross the sky like a forgotten spiderweb. …

Some of my favorite spots on Lake Shasta are found along the Sulanharas Creek Arm. The many shallow coves make for excellent fishing for spotted and smallmouth bass. This arm …

There it was, etched into the aluminum like a tiny spiritual tattoo: Recycle me. On the surface, it’s an environmental nudge. A polite reminder not to doom the can to …

This past Thursday, we hopped on the N-Judah and headed to Embarcadero. Destination: the Exploratorium’s After Dark series. Theme of the night? Bananas. I love riding the N. It’s not …

Once a year, we make a pilgrimage to Bass Pro Shops in San Jose. It’s a full-family affair. Everyone finds something to spark their curiosity. Gear, spectacle, or just time …

When I stall out, they kick me into gear. They help me avoid decision paralysis. No more sitting there, blank page, blank brain. Instead: one playful nudge. Just enough to …