A quantum leap has happened, a dosage of "miracle's drug" has happened, the avant-garde of the tunneL has happened! Last Night the sTage belonged to Derick, "Derick in the TunneL". HE played foR me the tune "Passion" and spoke about the Art and his life afterwords. We wish to work with the tunnel, in the tunnel as a collaboration of visual and jazz art. I can re-learn the sax I once played and join him, maybe. I wish to paint him in the tunnel as he plays on a large vertical canvas. The tunnel will no longer be a tunnel to pass through, but to stop in, and listen and watch. And another thing, I have it all on tape!

Last night, it was a miracLE.

The Miracle expanded after my encounter and exchange with Derick. I met a man on a bench as I was waiting for the train and thinking about all that just happened with Derick. My blood was pumping really quickly and the pieces I had collected to add into the bridge painting had really excited my spirit and given me joy mixed with impatience, but I really tried to relax and soak in the suds of sound and smooth listening. This man on the bench, I shared with him some of my sketches and words about the art.

This man had just returned from jail for 2 and a half years. I showed him one of my artist statements, the one where I mention Daniel who is a man I had met about a month ago, who said he hasn't cried since he was 15, he is now 25, who said he was in a dark place in life, a lonely place, where he finds escape and love in his dreams, these dreams that do not come often.

When this man was reading about Daniel in the statement he said, "You know something, its funny, this man that I am reading about, this Daniel who is 25, well ... My name is Daniel and I am 25." Something was happening to him as he was reading it, he was shaking and shivering.

He gave me a vision to paint the prisons, to paint the people behind the bars, to visit them, the recreation yard where men play softball and lift weights and play basketball, the cells where the men read books and think about their wives or about their children or about the things that really matter. I gave him the sketch book and he drew what he saw. I believe a time will come where this vision is expanded and made actual.