Over 30 years ago, The SEEDS Foundation began doing various experimental projects within public schools. We distributed free seeds to any teachers who wanted them for student gardens, and helped high school journalism students get their written stories published in local weekly community newspapers. We also printed greeting cards at Pasadena City College so teachers could use the cards to write to their students’ parents. 

I developed and proposed a program where high schools could use school busses as a way for their graphic design and art students to make important statements on the sides of the buses to address important social and community issues like drug abuse, student achievement, role models, and various community and life issues. Even though The SEEDS Foundation had set up a committee at La Unified who loved the project, and we had over a dozen letters of support from school Superintendents outside of LA Unified, and letters of support from sponsors like Kaiser Permanente, The Auto Club, In and Out Burger to name only a few who did not want advertising on the buses, just a corporate logo in exchange for paying hundreds of dollars per month per school bus. But in the end the California Highway Patrol said this would be a visual distraction and would not allow this to happen. Even the insurance companies themselves said this was not a visual distraction. 

Former Governor Deukmejian called me on the phone and said he had no problem with the program but said without me hiring a lobbyist to change the laws for our Pilot Program, it would never happen, and I did not have the 100,000 dollars or more 30 years ago that I was told it would take to do this…. So, I ended this program and decided to work on art projects I could have control over, because I don’t want this to happen again. This time I am counting on The International Hair Art Museum, and the International EPIC that I am putting all my effort in to become a reality.  

The SEEDS Foundation is now solely about working with Experimental photography projects and The International Hair Art Museum.

I believe art is about exploring the visual world around us in new ways to help us question, reflect, and better understand who we are as human beings.