Who Is CutZy?

In 2012 I lost my soul mate of twenty-five years in a mountain-climbing accident. I had always been a cutting-edge, experimental visual artist and writer. However, at that moment - as I was falling apart and picking myself up - I dove head-first into making art and writing poetry as a way of dealing with the vast grief that overwhelmed me.

Technology turned out to be my savior. I went deeper than ever before via the art of digitally manipulating my favorite medium: collage. I found that I could create colors and shapes that leapt off the page into the eyes and the soul, emotional images far beyond anything I had done with paints and brushes. I began working with fashion photography, graphic design, font graphics and other techniques that lifted me out of the darkest moment of my life. I thought, if this new, sensual and emotional art that seemed to have appeared, magically, in my life to heal me - perhaps it might help others.

David Bowie, the great rock star and dedicated art collector said, "Art changes the way that I feel every day." 

My life has always been about love, and sharing that love with others. I am a romantic person. I have always kind of been in love with everything, if that is possible: the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly. For me, I love the story of life ongoing, and have learned that even the deepest cuts, the worst tragedies, can bring wisdom that lifts rather than destroys. I went through a nightmare, losing the great love of my life. I was dashed against rocks. Lying in bed, alone, without my love beside me, I thought I might not survive. To save myself, I kept creating art and poetry, and that process made me a new person, with a desire to give what I have made to the world. 

My blog is called "Poetry For Men I Love." When I lost James, I was so lonely, so sad, that I reached out to kind, caring, encouraging men across the world, on social media, for the love I was missing. Many of them were talented fine artists themselves. As I developed creatively, they cheered me on, and thanks to those men I felt that I might actually be able to fall in love again some day. The poems I write are for them, and for all the nurturing men that I have been lucky to have known in my life, including the good men in my family of origin.

My blog is also for women. Great people of all ages, places and times have encouraged women to love and stand up for themselves. Therefore, I think you may be surprised to find that some of my poetry, though directed to men, is actually more about what it means to be a woman who has personal life lessons about struggling with romantic love and gender bias.

And there is one more thing I have to add: I wrote these poems to help men, who are often not encouraged to express their emotional side. With both my art and poetry I wanted to give back the romance that men are often denied due to  gender roles that say that a man may not shed tears, may not be tender or vulnerable, and may not show that he is deeply, heartbreakingly romantic himself. 

In the final analysis, art is my way of saying "I LOVE YOU!"  to the world.