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I started writing poems when I was 9.
I began science experiments and visual art explorations sometime before that.
I was one of those kids who put shoestring tips into electrical outlets to find the magic that ran my record player. I don’t recall this being an issue with my folks, but the occasional feedback I received directly from the wall outlets quickly guided my explorations toward non-conductive materials. Parental intervention really would have been redundant.
As it happens, the “objects in the outlet” stage coincided with my “hallway mural” period. Unlike the electrical investigations, my large-scale artworks prompted a great deal of parental intervention in the form of Comet cleanser and the temporary loss of my studio materials. Clearly, I needed my own walls.
I was about 10 when my folks bought me my first microscope and my enthusiastic investigations of anything tiny quickly supplanted wall circuitry as my primary experimental interest.
Eventually, I obtained a degree in bioorganic chemistry, an NSF fellowship, a great job in biotech, and my own walls—on which I did indeed paint murals. Oddly enough, my “works on SheetRock” once again did not survive to the present day, this time at the insistence of an inexperienced realtor whose advice I stupidly heeded. Live and learn.
My career in science spanned an amazing 16 years that I wouldn’t trade for anything, and I will always miss parts of it. There were so many great people, challenges, some papers published, and of course some stuff you couldn’t pay me enough to do again.
But throughout my science tenure, my poetry notebooks continued to grow, as did the piles of paintings, drawings, and photographs in my spare room. At some point, the disconnect between what I was doing for 12 hours a day and what I daydreamed about doing was so large I was compelled to pay attention.
So I chucked it. The paying job part, that is :-)
Now I’m back to making pictures and writing things in my notebook full time. I’ve published some poems, exhibited artwork in a few group shows, and sold some written and visual pieces.
But none of that is the really the point.
Don’t get me wrong, I genuinely appreciate each and every patron and all the successes, small or large. I am forever delightfully surprised when these wonderful things happen, and I will most certainly continue to seek them.
What I mean is that these things aren’t the reason I’m doing anything.
I’ve stopped chasing the misconception that external measures of one’s work (mine or anyone’s) define or determine the work’s value. This realization is pretty important, at least to me. I think my 9 year old self understood this, and it’s just taken me a while to get back to—go figure, it all comes around.
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I started writing poetry soon after I learned to write anything, and I continue to write poems because they feel natural to me. I love language, music, and visual form and I find all of these in poetry; it’s a good fit.
Writing poems is one of the ways I try to make sense of what goes on around and inside of me. If you would like to read a bit more about me and my history, check out my narrative bio here.
I’ve been reading poetry and/or having poetry read to me as long as I can remember. One of the first books I received when I was small was Robert Louis Stevenson’s Child’s Garden of Verses. I received this treasured gift long before I could read, and remember fondly the sound of my father’s voice reading My Shadow, a favorite of mine.
Poetry certainly wasn’t standard issue in the hardscrabble blue collar practicality that shaped my life but, reading itself, that was different. Reading was one of my father’s greatest passions, so reading anything—even poetry—was beyond good.
Regarding reading anyway, the acorn didn’t fall far. I believe it is essential to read just about everything you can get your eyes wrapped around. If you are interested in some reading ideas, I’ve included a rather random and incomplete list of some of the writers I read, here. But, really, just read something - anything - everyday.
What you will notice when you read my poems is that free verse tends to be my tool of choice, and I often place the reader very close to the action by choosing a first person speaker for the poem.
From my perspective, my poems predominately examine change and movement, or the lack thereof, but I believe what matters most is what you find in them.
If you’d like to check out some of my poetry, the published versions of some of my poems are found here . If you are interested in newer work, contact me here for an account where you can look at unpublished works, works in progress, and offer comments if you like. ^^ back to top
Intro
 I believed for a great many years that visual art was something other people did, not me. My early attempts at “art for the home” weren’t so well received, and art class in school did little to encourage my creative exploration.
One of my singular art class memories is of being instructed to carve something interesting out of two great hunks of sand. The russet brown grit was somehow bonded into large heavy bricks and the goal was to use little files and rasps to sculpt the bricks into attractive bookends.
When some weeks after beginning this endeavor I presented my parents with two somewhat rounded sand bricks bearing green felt on one end, they dutifully placed them on the encyclopedia shelf of the bookcase. The aesthetic merit of these dubious additions to the living room decor was mercifully never examined.
I got back to visual art through another channel altogether.
In my 30’s, I began reading books about intuitive drawing and painting. This immediately resonated with something in me, and I decided to give it a try.
Soon you were to find me ferreted away in the ten square feet of my apartment designated as “studio” almost all the time I wasn’t at my job. Very quickly, I realized that one day, I would have to give this art thing a much greater share of my attention and energy. About a dozen years later, I finally began working full time as an artist and writer (more here in my bio).
I am fascinated by water and sky.
These elements are reassuring to me, and represent potential. I see them as living Zen—literally becoming new again and again in each moment.
The forms and mutability of these elements manifest themselves in nearly all of my images.
Conceptually, my work derives from a tension of opposing forces: humanity’s positive potentials for enlightenment and social compassion, and the frenetic drive for individual accomplishment and status.
I find this contradiction all too sharply evident in modern society. I believe it universally contributes to, and is a frequent leading cause of, the many social, environmental, and political challenges we face globally.
For me, this raises a single question that underpins all of my artwork. Is it possible to thrive in a strongly individualized culture and, at the same time, embrace a larger unitive reality, or does individual achievement preclude social compassion and spiritual growth?
My digital paintings, photographs, and trad media pieces remain, as my art began, avenues for my own personal explorations. Any potential for a broader relevancy is achieved only through the viewer’s interpretation of a given image. My intention beyond the personal is to invite contemplation and introspection. ^^ back to top
collaborations with Kayt Hoch
I’m an experimentalist seeking same for potential projects and discourse.
I’m interested in: mixing chemistries without safety glasses, spilling volatility into the reservoir, illicit pollination between species, ecstatic failure, inhaling locomotive breath,
you?
I’m up for large or small, planned or improvised. I’m most interested in collaborations with musicians, sound artists, writers, composers, and/or visual artists.
Gyroscope Rebel Arts - KaytHoch.com has tools designed specifically for collaborative projects. Projects are facilitated by a private (non-public) password protected collaboration forum with an integrated FTP utility for easily sharing files of all sizes. Each collaboration forum is visible only to its specific project members, and the collaboration space itself is only visible to registered members.
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My blog, The Pedestrian Crossing, allows me to write in different ways and about different things than I can elsewhere. After leaving the science world (see my bio for more) I eventually came to realize that I missed writing things besides poetry, that I need an avenue to explore topics that aren’t (for me) best served by verse. There is more about the blog here or of course you can read the blog content here. ^^ back to top
Dedication & Thanks from Kayt
 My work and this site are dedicated to the countless individuals who daily exchange their bodies for bread. This is for everyone who turns wrenches, digs dirt, harvests fields, empties bedpans, makes home for the family, punches the clock, pours the coffee, lays the brick, and the million other professions that silently shape and sustain our lives. These people are the unsung backbone and heart of every society. I am—as are we all—deeply and forever in your debt. May I never, for one single moment, forget what I owe as I work toward a world that is truly equitable for everyone. * * *
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| My thanks to R.G., D.G., B.P., and K.W. I could write volumes about everything that might not exist but does—because of your encouragement, kicks in my butt, and steadfast friendship. But none of what I could put into words would even come close to articulating what’s important. You know. And, I know. And that stands on its own.
Namaste, blessings, and thanks to B.W. and D.D. You anchor me to what is real.
And not the least, my deepest thanks to E.A.W. My love, my kindred, my tireless first reader— and the kindest, most patient person I have ever known. You are the constant in all my equations.
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