I was born and grew up in Berkeley, California. Art, writing and music have been important to me my entire life. One of the most wonderful things about Berkeley was the rich exposure to a variety of music. Pete Seeger, Jean Ritchie and Mance Lipscomb gave children’s concerts. There were annual jazz festivals at the university where I heard greats such as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Carmen McRae, and folk festivals and concerts featuring Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, along with more traditional folk musicians. Mostly I got hooked on the blues. By the old age of age of fifteen I was hanging out in San Francisco at the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms and at free rock concerts in Golden Gate and Provo Parks. I attended the Monterey Pop Festival. I listened to the underground FM radio stations constantly; the music of the time expressed my feelings about what was going on around and inside me.

 

I was front and center at virtually every major happening, demonstration and protest in the San Francisco Bay Area on the 1960s. I inhaled my share of tear gas at Vietnam protests and the People’s Park demonstrations. A little too much was going on for peace of mind. In 1970 I learned Transcendental Meditation, and have been practicing it regularly ever since. I became a teacher in 1973, and have taught in the U.S., the Philippines and Taiwan. I studied with and worked on the staff of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the TM organization, in Europe and in India.

 

Ihave a B.A. in Art History from Oakland University in Michigan and a BFA from California College of the Arts. I worked as a chef in France and Switzerland, roamed around South India going to temples and holy places, ran a health spa in Missouri, and have worn a dozen other hats and even made a few. Some of my richest experiences have been sitting at home at the drawing board or writing.

 

I try to live by the wise sage Satchel Paige’s advice to “Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching.”