The body is designed to move! Proper function (health) requires comprehensive regular movement. Aside from the obvious implications for an artist's productivity and longevity, movement practice is critical for establishing full rapport with what I observe. The deeper I go with my physical practice, the more I see and acquire. My favorite categories of movement are dance, distance running, swimming, advanced yoga and tai chi.

Linking physiology and emotion, dance is an incomparable tool for figure study. Available in an infinite variety of flavors - social, performance, solitary, improvisational, ritualistic etc. - dance provides an ideal vehicle to visualize the totality of human experience, with or without a soundtrack.

Aside from feeling wonderful, running is both primal and highly practical. In a sedentary culture it's a secret pleasure to have jungle power on standby. The rhythm of running empties the mind while sharpening the senses. In the day to day life of a New York pedestrian, sprinting to safety is not an unimaginable event.

I love diving deep beneath light streaked waves and stroking through foamy surf free from gravity. Swimming is a departure from the confines of verticality, a re purposing and redefinition of human anatomy. The amazing adaptive design of the body is revealed in water and the insights available to the swimmer are infinite.

Yoga and Tai Chi realize the latent potential inherent in the human design. Even with the semi-annual life threatening event, I am still above ground and smiling thanks to the expanded capabilities developed by these practices. The enhanced awareness of my own body certainly informs my work as an artist. Movement which would seem fantastical to the average athlete is part of my native vocabulary. I can become that which I observe.