Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Brinkley.

Hi Tony, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve never planned very much – although if necessary, I can. Without planning, I discovered I could be ready for what I needed to be ready for. I went to graduate school because I was in love with someone who was no longer there when I got there. And so it went on from there. “Readiness is all,” Hamlet says – the readiness for example of an actor on each night of performance – and that has been an understanding I have relied on. Now at 77 I practice readiness as an aesthetic and as a blessing. I’ve also learned to listen to what Jesus says in the BOOK OF THOMAS: Don’t tell lies and do not do the things you hate. Easier said than done, but it is good imperative.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I started out “adult” life as marginal. I decided to learn how to play an alpha male and I did. I lost a lot in the process and have struggled to recover from that illness. Some of this was a response to childhood trauma. I had to learn that the traumas I experienced didn’t require me to treat my world traumatically. At some point your demons can become your allies? Angels in disguise as Libby Roderick says. You can end up loving your life even if you don’t love yourself.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I supported myself and my family with a job teaching at a university. As a student, I often regarded authority (including a teacher’s) as the enemy. So Iend up occupying the position of my enemy. I tried to deconstruct it. I think I succeeded. What I received in return was an unpredictable happiness and a freedom that sustains me and that I think informs the art I make (poetry and pictures I call icons – and/or poetry without words). I’m not an artist but I make art. I think the difference is important. As John Cage often suggested – to be an artist is to be invested in self-expression while to make art involves self-alteration>

We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
That I don’t think through things ahead of time even if I seem to. I can seem quite strategic but almost everything for me is “spur of the moment.” Except perhaps for loyalty to friends and patience.