When I start a new drawing I have a feeling.  It’s as if someone rang my doorbell.  When I get up to answer it I have my pen in hand.  When they’re finished the pen leaves me.  I have the feeling that I’m under the control of a power.  I’m following them; I have no control.  I’m following the energy that leads me around.  It’s been that way since I was a boy.  I feel blessed.  They’ve always guided me in the right direction.

In childhood I had the desire to be an artist but it was strongly discouraged.  I had a hard childhood.  Years later a psychic told me that in 6 years I’d be picking up a pen and drawing.  At the time I disliked pen and ink and the desire to be an artist had faded.  But when I first picked up the pen a feeling came over me.  I was in our old farm house and I had a strong pull to find an old-fashioned quill pen.  Then I found an old bottle of Higgins ink and an old board.  The minute I picked up the pen and dipped it in the ink I heard a voice saying, “You’re finally here.”

I do everything with ritual.  Before I start working I hold the pen and circle the drawing board three times.  While I was working on “Unity” (1978), I’d sit at the board, do the ritual, and the pen started moving.  It took off and I found myself there—in ancient Israel with Abraham, Moses, Isaiah.  I knew who they all were.  I could feel the sand.  I was transported to that place as the observer, with the pen moving the whole time.  Later I was amazed to see what was on the drawing board.

For a whole year I worked from sun up to sun down every day, non-stop.  I looked forward to going to the drawing board and as soon as I picked up the pen, the journey began.  There were different journeys—one with Noah.  When I sat at the board I was in a time machine.  I’ve been on this journey ever since, though it has changed.  I was in India with Ganesh; ancient Greece with Zeus; with the Buddha.  It's better than going to the cinema.  It made my life sparkle.  It felt like I could step out and walk into another dimension, though part of me still resists taking that step.

When I was working on a particular drawing I journeyed inside that culture.  When the pen stopped I started reading.  They would lead me to pick up certain books.  I gobbled up religion, mythology and was constantly attuning to that culture and time.  In the old days, before I got into a drawing, I used to detest reading.  Then I picked up the King James Bible and cried through the whole book.

When I start a new drawing I have no idea what it will become.  I sit in front of the board, do the circling ritual, put pen to paper, and then I discover what I’m doing.  It feels like “Here we go.”  It’s like tuning into another frequency, like a meditation.  I once used mantras.  I would sit down and clear the mind with a mantra, which opened up a channel.  The mantra was the vehicle to take me into that space.  All those journeys are still “there” inside of me.  It’s like I visited those places in another life.

When I finish a drawing the pen stops.  There is a total disconnect.  I put the drawing in a drawer; it’s history.  Later I find a new board, pick up the pen and start all over again.  I have no idea what it will be.  When it’s finished I am completely unattached.  I’ll go back and look at it and am amazed.  It’s like I’m in a trance and when it’s over I’m shocked to see what is there, almost like I’ve never seen it.  The ego has to be transcended.  With ink, you make one mistake and it’s over.  They’ve never made a mistake.  My feeling is that I’m a tool for them for the sake of the future.

The work contains messages for the future.  It’s about love and understanding; that we’re part of one earth, children of the Mother; that we’re not forgotten; we never die.  Most of us are actually dead while the soul is trapped in the body.  My work stirs people’s imagination which helps wake up the soul.  When you create art, you are giving life to something that will remain, something that all people on the Earth can appreciate.  We’re servants and also visitors to this planet trying to leave behind something better.

Young people come to visit and see the art.  They need to be inspired—to get in tune with the Mother, to not get hooked on drugs, or computers.  A woman in Michigan holds a class where she puts a drawing in the center of a circle and asks people to meditate on it and interpret the drawing.  A woman in Japan does the same with 80 students.  People cry because it touches their soul.  Children say it makes them happy and you can’t fool children, there’s a purity about them.  It makes me happy to be able to do that.  I’m very devoted to children; there is a child inside of all of us.

There’s a whole world going on behind this world.  I’m in that world when I’m working.  It’s like leaving yourself; like watching a movie and knowing you’re in the movie without any attachment.  There is a feeling of peaceful love and of great comfort.  I’ll sit for hours and hours without moving and come back refreshed.  Doing this work is why I’m still here on this planet.  It’s like a teaching without rules and regulations.  There’s no judgment.  It feels like they are here with me.  “They” are beings from another plane using humans to wake people up.  Now they are telling me things regarding the Earth, the Mother.  The Mother is very upset because her children have left her.  She says “They are me.”