I’m 70+ years old. My parents were Republicans, so of course I became a Democrat, but years later I snapped out of it. I started voting Libertarian, but saw that it was basically pointless, and have voted Republican ever since.

Growing up in the 60s, like many my age, I not only smoked weed but also did a fair amount of psychedelics; however, I had enough sense to never get out of hand with it. I’ve been a lifelong artist and musician, and my use of psychedelics had a profound influence on my art and music. (Please note that I have not done any tripping since the late 1970s. I even gave up weed in 1999, but started up again after my wife died in 2021. Moderate use only, and only in the evening at home.)

I was in a semi-famous band in the mid-70s called “Sky King”; members included Chris Brubeck, son of jazz legend Dave Brubeck, whom we played several shows with. We were from Ann Arbor, but when we got signed to Columbia records we moved to NYC; lived on the upper west side for a couple years. Eventually, that ran its course, and I moved back to Michigan and went back to art school.

I was a commercial illustrator in Detroit for 20 years, then became a HS art teacher at a charter school for the Arts in Metro Detroit. Retired after 13 years at that job. I now paint for my own enjoyment; happily, I have developed a considerable “fan base” with over 12K followers in Instagram. My paintings are in kind of a psychedlic surrealist style, which is the reason for my FR profile name.

I’ve been a reader of FR for a LONG time, but only joined as a member fairly recently. Glad to see that I’m not the only pot smoker on FR! LOL!