Artist Statement

I've been thinking about today a ton and this is what I have. I'm not going to explain the values yet because I'm not sure that they're right and I need to think about them a little more.

Values:
Certainty, the inevitable
things that exist vs. things that don't exist- Actually, I'm pretty sure about this one. Last year I wrote a story about a man's relationship with his imaginary friend (which really represented a number of things). And I realized that the poem I posted just last week had a line about colors that don't exist.
routine

Issues:
Fact vs. opinion/belief- I had down religion, but I figure it ties into this. I don't believe in god; in fact, I'm sure that there isn't one. Not only do I believe in every corner of my mind that there is no god, I hold it as fact. Still, there are people who know that there is a god. They don't just believe it, they know it. These two blatant opposites are facts. They are as opposite as life and death, but to somebody, each is a fact.
Selfishness: I'm hung up on the idea that everything that everybody does is for themselves, no matter how generous. A person who spends years volunteering to build houses for tsunami victims or Hurricane Katrina victims or starts a charity fund for Darfur or Haiti or anything along these lines is doing it solely for themselves. The furthest I've ever been from selfishness is when my grandpa died and what made me saddest was that his best friend couldn't go to the supermarket where everyone thought they were brothers every morning anymore. They had done it every morning for fifty years. But even that was selfish; that was a part of me, of my identity. I was no longer someone who had a grandpa who went to the supermarket every morning with his best friend where everyone thought they were brothers. That couldn't be a part of me anymore.
Knowing/understanding a person: Mainly a family member. There is so much to everybody. How can we possibly know a quarter of a person's life and true personality when we're so caught up in our own lives? A parent can love their child without even knowing them. Yes, parents may know their children more than the children can understand, but if we don't understand ourselves, how can anybody else? And why is it just common knowledge that your family knows you better than anyone else? Do you have to love your family?