Check out Dave Thornburgh's new CD "God's Coffee Break"

Dave Thornburgh is a prolific songwriter, musician, painter, poet, cartoonist and commentator on our modern world.

"I only really feel centered when I'm writing, making songs, or painting. I figure it's an active form of very satisfying, fun meditation of some kind."

"My favorite songwriters are Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell. I also look toward avant-garde composers for inspiration. If you've never heard Terry Riley's "A Rainbow in Curved Air," it is a true pleasure which awaits. Today, for folks interested in contemporary protest music, I recommend the works and website of David Rovics."

"My painting heroes are Lyonel Feininger, Jackson Pollock (and his contemporaries), Lynne Golob Gelfman (who taught me some technique in the early 80's), Gary Feinberg., my Grandpa, and many others. I am often inspired by any line/color chanced upon. Inspiration transcends both subject and beholder, into a place of spirit (channeling, blooming, and/or some form of active, creative meditation). Sometimes it's fun to take detail photos of sections of my own abstract/expressionist paintings, thus making new works out of them."

"I adore the writings of Ayn Rand. I love the journalism and stories of Edna Buchanan, Carl Hiaasen, and Dave Barry of The Miami Herald and the poetry of Donald Hall, Nikki Giovanni, Sir Stephen Spender, as well as many of The Beat writers. I love all poets in some way. To paraphrase the poem "Invictus," "I feel like a civilian of my fate."

"This is an an exciting period in American history. We are living in a renaissance of the arts and the continuing rapid evolution of technology. I hope our nutty "leaders" and other power-worshipping, control-junkies of all persuasions don't blow it for the rest of humanity. All my life I just wanted to be let alone to do my own thing. All my life I've been subjected to scrutinies and tests, as well to as the edicts, precepts, and force of others. Now I can say, "OK you Gods and other nitpicking dictators -- I don't know why you continue to test me -- you KNOW I always fail ! Here's a test-free place for you too...can you just say 'yes' to freedom ? Can you just let me live free and let live ?"

 

 

Background painting by David M . Thornburgh