I have chosen this picture of Conformity to close this Introduction to the Minds Alive Approach for several reasons. I personally consider it to be one of my best art works and certainly one of the most powerful. Ironically it is a favorite of many people who have seen it and I have had more requests to view it again than most any other art work I have created. One of the positive notes in regard to this picture is that it has the power of visual impact to grasp peoples attention. In this case, this power gives it tremendous importance as a means to focus attention upon a very significant fact—a fact that it is blindness to the structural relationships of the forms and patterns of our lives and our culture that is blocking our ability to set a proper course for ourselves today within our rapidly accelerated environment—a course that can be corrected by making the structural adjustments necessary to living more effectively within these times.

The trauma that is reflected in the image of this picture in not that of anyone person, but of a large group of people. It is, in fact, a reflection of a great part of our culture— a culture that is experiencing severe growing pains resulting from the present and most drastic changes in the history of man. Not only have we put a man on the moon and created test tube babies, but via genetic engineering, we are taking over the role of mother nature as genetic programmers of the species.

The subject matter of this painting, the person bound by barbed wire, is a pictorial expression of the intense pain resulting from these changes which are destroying our roots faster than we can grow new ones. The barbed wire in this picture spells out the word, Conformity as it wraps around the figure of the man. Normally the pressure of conforming to accepted standards is a necessary means for maintaining order in society. When carried to extremes, however, conformity can be a very destructive force. In times of rapid change conformity serves to block the natural avenues of growth and for finding new relevant solutions to our evolving problems. To one degree or another, therefore, we are the figure in this picture. It is not an image of someone else. It is a picture of the effects the rapidly changing conditions of our times are having on most all of us. When events move faster than our ability to deal with them effectively, numbness and conformity are the ultimately results. This picture of "conformity" shows the real anguish that these conditions can bring at a time when we need to be more alive, innovative, and creative than ever before.