Trapped and Escaping

Last night I watched October Sky. Have been working with Dr. Ruby Payne, a big poverty guru (and very nice) and have been thinking a lot about poverty, and the way that it traps some kids. But the thing about October Sky was that the kids were NOT poor, but they were just as trapped - a West Virginia coal town where you work for the mine. It's the only future that makes any sense -and it isn't much of a future. So when these 4 kids decide to try to win the national science fair, nobody respects them. Lots and lots of ways to be trapped. Family obligations, family expectations. Lack of vision. Poverty. Violence.

That's one of the things that I value most about my art - there are no rules, or at least there are no rules that I choose to obey. My mentor Steve Klein once gave me a picture (taken from an IBM ad?) that has a mouse in a maze. The mouse just chewed through the maze to get to the cheese. The caption: No rules for this mouse!

That's how I try to create: no rules for this mouse. And I try not to get trapped in my own or others' expectations.