It's OK to be a girl.
It's OK to be a boy.
It's OK to be both.
It's OK to be neither.

Even if you don't know what that is.
Even if other people say you can't.
Even if it seems like a contradiction.
Even if it feels impossible.

Don't worry.
Don't control.
Don't obsess.
Don't despair.

Breathe...

slow down...


abandon control...



embrace passion...




and let the river run where it will.

Talk radio host and attorney Robin Goldstein has devoted much of her life--and much deep thought--to her own quest for gender identity and personal fulfillment.

At 51, she’s gone from male to female to male and back again to female. This decades-long process has inspired its share of perplexed reactions.

Asked what she identifies as now, Goldstein describes herself only half jokingly as "a straight, white, Buddhist, vegetarian, lesbian fraternity boy trapped in the body of a recovering transsexual patent attorney with a bizarre sense of humor, and a master’s degree in city planning."

That laundry list acknowledges the humor and absurdity surrounding the misconception that any of us can be summed up by one simple reference to gender, career or disposition.

Continued...

Statues, machines, tornadoes, and Rube Goldberg-inspired goodness. (click image for gallery)

Well, that does it for Art Week. Hope you enjoyed it!

This is a teapot. Isn't it lovely? (click image for gallery)

"Lies and Persuasion" by Kris Kuksi (click image for gallery)

Beautiful and grotesque. Visit the gallery for a closer look at this and other fascinating sculptures.

"Venus Flytrap" by Nemo Gould (click image for gallery)

Cute robot sculptures.

"A hermitage out far" by Robert Mekis (click image for gallery)

Beautiful landscape photography.

"Hybrid Sun" by John Kuhn (click image for gallery)

Highly intricate, very expensive glass concept art. This is what my computer will look like in 2020.

"The Cone Dog" by Scott Campbell (click image for gallery)

His blog is here.

"Everybody's a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We're all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos."

"When you're in the muck, you can only see muck. If you somehow manage to float above it, you still see the muck, but you see it from a different perspective. And you see other things, too. That's the consolation of philosophy."

"Civilization is repression. You don't get civilization without repression of the unconscious, of the id. And the basic appeal of art is to the unconscious. Therefore, art is somewhat subversive of civilization. And yet at the same time it seems necessary for civilization. You don't get civilization without art."

"If religion is used to allow you to come to terms with death, and also to guide you in how you live your life, then I think art can do the same thing. But in a schematic way, in a much less rigid and absolute way, which is why it appeals to me and religion doesn't."

"We've all got the disease - the disease of being finite. Death is the basis of all horror."

"As filmmaker, I ask questions but don't have answers. Moviemaking is a philosophical exploration. I invite the audience to come on the journey and discover what they think and feel."

"My movies are body-conscious. The first fact of human existence is the human body. If you get away from physical reality, you're fudging, in fantasy land, not coming to grips with what violence does."

"We question a country's self-mythology. Perfect town and perfect family are - like Westerns - part of America's mythology, involving notions of past innocence and naïveté. But is it possible for innocence to exist while something heinous transpires elsewhere? What does it take for a country to be rich and prosperous? What does that country do to the world?"

"To me, the life that we live is heaven. My idea of paradise is life on Earth. But we often don't know it, and can't see it that way, until, I'm sure, we start to leave it. I guess that's the way I feel about film."