Site Map

sortmind.com is intended as a useful overview of my art and writing, also as a central repository where I can point people who are interested in my work. 

My wife, Nancy Remp Smith, has a web site,

www.geoshaman.com,

concerned with channeling, shamanism, Norse and Egyptian gods, and the Blue People.

Bio

I was raised in the Northeast, spent my formative years in the Chicago area, then moved to Texas to attend Rice University, where I developed as a writer and visual artist. I published a story, “Space, Time and Tania,” in the literary magazine PigIron in 1977, but since then have concentrated on novel writing. I’ve written thirteen novels, including Sortmind, The Martian Marauders, Nonprofit Ladies, and The Soul Institute.

My writing employs humor but with a metaphysical tinge. It has literary as well as science fiction qualities.

Artist Statement

The universe is looking for channels through which it can pour its raw energies. Any method or process needs to be reevaluated when the universe decides that something new is to be poured.

We may want to explore a given method for a while, but we need to understand there can’t be recipes for the transcendent. A method will work for a season, then wink out of existence.

I work in both abstraction and realism according to how the energies dictate their channeling needs. Abstract artworks are like dreams you struggle to convey to a listener. Sometimes the dream is necessary and resonating. Sometimes it’s confusing. Sometimes it’s boring! Sometimes a realistic image is needed to ground everyone in what is real.

It seems to me that paint is inherently messy, and attempts to regulate it with finer and finer brushes defeat the paint’s purpose. I want even a realistic painting to acknowledge the inherent messiness of the paint. If the energies need more precision, they have me take up pencil on paper.