The Big Two Seven

On a warm West Texas Morning on May 10, 1982, my mother and father were greeted by the face of their first child. A beautiful little boy they named after their fathers; Artie - short for Artemus, the paternal family name for their boys, and Ben - short for Benjamin, the middle name of my maternal grandfather.

27 years ago today, at this very moment, I greeted my parents and the small West Texas world, and my mother says she knew that "things would never be the same." Since I can remember I spent the majority of my time creating: drawing, singing, acting, or dubiously orchestrating some scheme that would inevitibly involve my younger brother carrying the blame. (Those [schemes] have since stopped.) My mother always said that she never went wrong in naming me Artie, because she felt it had something to do with how artistic I had become.

Today, I look back on the last few years, and I find happy and sad times, hard and soft times, high and low times - and through them all, no matter what, I have remained creative - and in my own way, artistic. So, here's to 27 ! Thanks for sharing my birthday with me.