Thoughts from Peter Olevnik and David Winter upon reading the draft of Into the Light.

In the beginning was the word. The word was no. But, he ignored the word and found a new direction. But that direction had no map. His map was painting. Through his painting he found a way to interpret his thought, feelings and responses.

As he aged, he had new experiences, his need to express these changed. He moved from being a describer of art to one who feels and sees through his art.

Peter Olevnik

Into the light he flew, and returned again.

David Winter

I sit, stand, and walk around my attic storage space full of pictures, paintings, collection of the artists, stacked in piles, by years. Looking at them I realize they are me. A long time ago I started this journey, not knowing no end (self defining processes generally do not have points). Sitting now, eleven years later, I've just passed another fork in the road.

Up until I was 32 years old I followed directions and did what I was suppose to do. I stopped when I realized I wanted my life to be what I wanted it to be, not what someone else thought, or wanted it, and me, to be. I paid the price and went on my way.

I wrote to get over the guilt of leaving the everyday lives of my young children and to better understand what was important to me. I also went overboard on the freedom thing and realized excess can be just as bad or worse than apathy.

The chronicler wrote on and added painting to the process. A basic unresolved state and heaviness of thought lay down its place on papers and canvas. The talent and sadness of Vincent VanGogh, and the focus on darkness were my soul.

In stopping the Vincent thing I had to go on with my own work, which required me to look, feel, think and be what I was doing. This scary place is also the responsible place, because if there were no ideas, something loved would stop. Success at my own efforts made my thoughts, deeds, actions and outcomes lighter, lighter still.

Fear makes the darkness for if you're afraid you can't try. This book is my journey into the light. The store, the cards and all the brush less efforts are just my statements away from others and towards my self. They are the works of an artist no longer afraid of himself.

Into the Light is my journey to find myself, and finding my self where I was all along. We're all born into the light, and spend our days moving away from the freedom of being. This book is for those who are not afraid to be alive, and this book is a small personal statement of freedom.

Howard

June 27th, 1992

Second edit completed August 20th 1998)