The perils of writing the back cover came without warning. Full of poems, stories, observations, and pictures, any format would be acceptable, which left me too many options. I tried to pawn the task off on Alison Golfman, my first fan/groupie, but she had exams. Right, university...that thing I neglected to do. I tried writing about my past year until I realized how cynical it was getting. Forget that, try something new: write a short story that covers all the themes herein. That became too complicated. The next day I was told to write something, lest they transplant some inner text to the back. I scrambled for an opener: Not everything in life goes exactly as planned; Ninety-nine percent of civilized people live the same life; I grew up too fast...they all fell apart. If only I had a typewriter; then the crumpled, would-be pitches for the back of the book could inspire me.

I could write about the letter I sent to Tom Robbins and the one I got back, but I doubt it would warrant me a stay at his panther mansion. I could open with a joke, but who knows who'd find it funny. I could do a bunch of things to trick you into reading this book, but the work inside speaks for itself better than I can. Love, lust, the bathroom, the bus, and the decay of civilization; You'll find it here, and I do hope you enjoy.

Bob Craig is a Western Canadian artist whose path in the fine arts has led him to a unique expression of mood and color through collage and mixed media. He has explored numerous forms of art and craft: painting in watercolor and oils, sculpture and pottery. After graduating from the University of Alberta Bob had a teaching career in Alberta and British Columbia.

Bob thinks of himself as a craftsman, constructing, or interpreting imagery from his conscious and subconscious mind. His work has appeared in juried exhibits and galleries in Canada (Vancouver and Montreal), Italy, Spain, Portugal, Crete, the United States (New York and Beverly Hills), New Zealand and Switzerland where his exhibition piece. After Treaty Seven, took first prize in the free subject media category at SEETAL 2006.

“I have throughout my adult life occasionally lived in altered perceptual states where reality became magnified and the world was one giant harmonious gestalt. My art is an effort to recapture the vivid nature of these encounters.”