Working Sober: The Studio as Sanctuary

Every day in the studio starts the same way: clean the brushes from yesterday, make coffee, put on a record. It's not superstition — it's the routine that kept me alive. Drugs and alcohol challenged my sobriety for years, and the discipline of showing up for the work every single day is a big part of how I stay on the right side of it.

My father managed his PTSD after Vietnam by making art. I watched him do it my whole childhood without understanding what I was seeing. Now I understand it from the inside. The canvas doesn't judge you, but it does keep score — it shows you exactly how present you were.

If you're an artist fighting the same fight: the work is on your side. Paint the day you're actually having, not the day you wish you were having. Some of my best paintings are the ones that started as bad days.