I'm an irreverent, vegan, Marxist, rollercoaster enthusiast. Pretty normal American -- except for hating cruelty and injustice. I make wooden scrollworks and "totem puzzle" wallhangings, sometimes finished to resemble metal.

"True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude toward those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it."
~Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being 

"To live creatively means to live more and more unselfishly, to live more and more into the world, identifying oneself with it and thus influencing it at the core, so to speak. Art, like religion, is only a preparation, an initiation into the way of life. The goal is liberation, freedom, which means assuming more responsibility. The mastery of any form of expression should lead inevitably to the final expression -- mastery of life."
~Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi