As a native Minnesotan, I sometimes find the empty, windswept plains of Kansas a bit doleful. But then I look up and find the velvet curtain of the sky, jeweled with the stars mentioned in the state's motto. Maybe those of us living in this empty stretch of Earth dream of the stars more here because the skies are clearer and somehow larger. With no trees to obscure it, the horizon seems more distant, but somehow the sky seems closer. Sunsets seem to stretch on forever, and the moon, rising like a golden medallion over the horizon, seems close enough to touch. While I miss the lakes and forests of my home, there's no denying that this place has made me dream of the sky and the stars in ways that I haven't since my childhood dreams of one day flying to Mars as an astronaut (which didn't pan out, sadly).  

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"Songs for Asteria" became the website title when I put out a call among my friends for feedback on some sort of name that encapsulated my work. In ancient Greek mythology, Asteria is the Titaness of divination and of falling stars. There are some other fantastic references in history that make this name apropos on other levels, too. Much of my work looks toward those stars, and I hope that it imparts a little bit of the wonder I feel when I experience the power of this marvelous universe and sense the beauty just beneath the veil that knits this sublime experience together. 

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So, welcome. Take a moment to enjoy my visual songs to the stars. May they take you away or remind you of the home, somewhere out there, that could still await each of us.