Alan says that he will not sleep
in the dining room any more.
Alan says that there’s not a rat,
there is a rat infestation.
Last night one crawled
across his foot and then another
sniffed his hair for several seconds.

Never mind the fact that he was born some 600 years too late, Leigh J. McCloskey is every bit a Renaissance Man. Not someone stuck in the past, but someone part of what he calls an “emerging Renaissance.” An accomplished actor, McCloskey may best be known for his role as Mitch Cooper from the TV series Dallas. Through Julliard, to a career in TV/film spanning nearly 4 decades, McCloskey’s acting resume would seem creative enough for two lifetimes. After spending a day with him in the Hieroglyph of the Human Soul, however, you’d soon realize that McCloskey is concerned with much more than just playing a part. Indeed, spending time IN the Hieroglyph of the Human Soul. Entering the artist’s home only to see the room devoted to this craft of mixed media, brushstroke, and imagination, it would be easy to dismiss the Heiroglyph as a floor-to-ceiling, corner-to-corner rendition of archetypes in acrylic paint. However, after a few moments dissolving into the splendor of a work like this, objectivity takes a back seat. Add 3-D glasses with well-executed storytelling, and objectivity gets thrown out altogether. I thought I had come to hold an interview, but within minutes I realized the standard Q & A would not suffice: “Unscrew the locks from the door! / Unscrew the doors themselves from the jambs!” to quote Whitman, and this rallying cry provides the necessary architecture to describe a person who may very well be the last of the cave painters.

At the foot of Haleakeala (Hawaiian: House of the Sun), the volcano under most of Maui County, rests the small crossroad town of Haiku. Living there enabled the author to catch up on postcards while winter fell elsewhere.

The Long Beach Museum of Art is preparing a new exhibition titled Sweet Subversives, which will open October 16, 2009 on the first floor of the Museum’s gallery pavilion. Sweet Subversives is a unique gathering of 31 drawings by Southern California artists who explore their personal vision of what a drawing means to them and how they achieve this vision.

I thought I was going to be late. I forgot to set my clock back before I
went to bed last night. Forgot to move the hour back before the leaves fell
from my dreams like the colored leaves that fall from trees. I rushed to work, driving,
trying to set the dashboard clock; my body hunched over the wheel, not paying
attention to the other side of the windshield. The car revved high
before I managed to change gears. This took my hand off the clock
and put my eyes onto the street.