You were presented with a wide variety of work, it seemed as if you chose works based on their themes rather than their style per-say. What themes did you gravitate towards? The assignment - the gauntlet that was thrown down to the artists who submitted their work to The Revolving Museum for my jury - was to personally interpret the exhibition theme/title, Revelation for Revolution. Thus, unbenownst to the individual artists, certain similar sub-themes or ways of looking at revelation emerged to dance together, i.e. the two beds for dreaming, eggs and newborns, the death images, extra-terrestrials, heavens and nature, political/social commentary, the wheel of likfe in film and dance imagery, the role of the other, and even the subverse transformation of billboards to make them say something new. In other words, these submissions hit on all the main stuff that makes us think what life's about and where we're going. I liked the vast diversity of materials used in creating the works as well as in the backgrounds of the creators - trained, untrained, students, well-know and unknown - all had their say in distinct voice.

There are a lot of pieces with sleeping and dreaming references, what other ways do you think people come to revelatory experiences? Drugs, sex, and rock n' roll! - just kidding! Prayer, meditation, experiencing conflict and change and learning new responses of resolution and understanding. What sex, meditation, prayer and drugs have in common is a departure from the mundane and the pursuit of ecstasy. Some time ago I realized I don't care what people think - because that's so much a fact of transitory and environmental imprinting - but I do care what people understand, what they drink deep inside themselves. This entire exhibition is based on the role revelation plays in the process of revolution and ultimately all true human evolution. I loved the addition to the exhibition of the favorite quotes of the artists, permitting our visitors to become that much more intimate with what pumps each art maker. Art is a dialogue of perception through two sets of eyes.

The American Visionary Art Museum has been described as being "whimsical without being ridiculous", do you have a boundary line for the work you exhibit? AVAM is America's official national museum wholly dedicated to original, self-taught, intuitive artistry - evidence of fresh though emerging from no school except the act of listening within. Is it more intuitive or scholarly? I think all truly great scholarship is enormously intuitive (although the converse is not so) but we at AVAM err a bit on the side of feeling foremost. There are people who are self-taught who send us in their faux-Rothkos and just plain boring emulative stuff. Now we even get Finster wannabes. Like love, you know the real thing when you see it.

The AVAM has used guest curators for most of it's show, except for a few curated. How did it feel to be the juror/curator again? I felt as though The Revolving Museum gave me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation! Being your guest curator/juror was the most fun I've had fully clothed, right on down to the Portugese fish soup at Bo's and the time I spent learning from Jerry. My time with you also corresponded to the AIDS Day Tribute by your resident artist, Michael Dowling, which was the most moving AIDS awareness installation I've ever experienced. Then, I loved visiting Jeff Smith's studio. Jerry Beck and I emerged from the same heavenly womb I think, because I adore and "get" everything he's ever done, including the wonderous books he's written. Beck is both awesome and impish, coupling a rare love of people with play and great taste.

We like to think of the AVAM as a sister museum to The Revolving Museum, maybe a big sister . . . what similarities do you see between the two museums and how can we get to be as successful as the AVAM!?? That both AVAM and TRM have hands-on founder/directors who view art as the ideal way of making love to, blowing on the embers of, the souls of the WHOLE community and have both succeeded in attracting dedicated, monsterly talented people. These are key factors that unite us to one another. Unfortunately, we are also untied in the ongoing soul-sucking struggle for funds. I believe that with your next building initiate, if you let Jerry have his head, you will have the opportunity to be as "successful" as AVAM in the sense that our multi-award-winning facility provides a sense of exquisitemess of place that underscored the importance of the art we share within and without. It is my wish that AVAM will be as successful as TRM in providing more community based arts happenings. It sounds trite, but AVAM and TRM are both very happy places - a fact far rarer in the art world today than one would think. Museums began as cabinet of wonder, of discovery. It's our job to keep that quality of awe alive in what we do today.

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