I continuously dreamed of skulls — I’d be riding on a skull motorcycle, driving a skull car, living in a skull house. Because these experiences of mine were previews of death — what we will all see when Mr. Death taps us on the shoulder. The skulls express the ego death of the transcendental state where we cease to be located in a body and feel at one with the bliss of the Eternal. Mr. Death came dancing thru my dreams, he’s first cousin to Mr. Peanut. He became a costume for Hallowe’en one year. I take him to art show openings, to parades. He’s on a T-shirt — he’s cool, he’s debonair! I want him to greet the guests at my funeral. In my painting Welcome Home, Mr. Death urges us to transcend the ego and experience eternal love so we can enjoy richer lives. I stole Mr. Death’s dance step from Fred Astaire who had just died. The old-fashioned religious icons of yesterday no longer reach the contemporary heart. I call my alternative Church Punk.
