“The critics say you’re pandering … you pander to your audience.”

            “Pander?  I don’t see that.  I want them to like me, I guess.  That’s how it is up here, in my head, but when it comes out I think it’s complicated enough to be art that challenges.  I suppose the critics want me to hate the audience, is that it?”

            “That seems to be it.  They say, ‘He’s said what he has to say and now we’re left with complex structures, weird narratives and entry level discourses.’  That was in the Times.”

            “Those things are vices, structure and narrative?  They’re fundamental to the art form!  Why keep it stagnant?  Why not explore the constructs we’ve used since the beginning?  And in the meantime, weave in a subtle message.  Are my messages ‘entry level?’  Ok.  Simple truths are the most important ones, therefore they bear repetition.  Does a bell need only to be rung once?  Or a gong?  Tell a Buddhist he is simple, entry level.”

            “That’s a good argument, but also a good example of what they mean.”

            “How so?”

            “You just brought up Buddhism, briefly, and gave a short example that argued your point, yet painted Buddhists with one stroke … as gong-bangers.”

            “I see.  You know, it’s like playing catch with your head – if you miss, your head won’t drop because it’s on your shoulders.  Look, I’m not an expert on the things I put in my art.  That’s just it!  It’s art, not school!”

            “So going back to the structure and narrative …”

            “I play around with those things so that the observer has something for the first go around, and when they come back.  I put something in for the fifth, fifteenth and fiftieth trip.  It’s like I’m packing lunches in a fortune cookie shaped like a Mobius strip.”

            “Do you believe in that bullshit?”

            “Wholly.”

            “What do you want your gravestone to read?”

            “‘Here I am, because there I was’.”

            “What’s your favorite curse word?”

            “Trans-fatty acid.”

            “When you get to heaven, what would you like God to say?”

            “He should say, ‘Loved your stuff.  One question though …’”

            “That’s all we have for tonight.”

            “Thank you.”

            “I have to take my meds now.”

            “Right.  My rec time is over.  I have therapy in five.  Let’s do lunch sometime … and maybe a puzzle.”