Houston based artist John Carroll Runnels was born in 1949 near Coffee, Mississippi.  He received his B.F.A. from the University of Southern Mississippi. In 1985, he co-founded Mother Dog Studios, an alternative studio and exhibition space in downtown Houston.

 

State of the He.art

I am an American sex dreamer
gone mad - I only know what I love.
I don’t remember being born
but I played very hard under
the bluemoons & rainrooms of childhood.
There is only one first time &
I know dreams come true -
perhaps that would explain
why a grown man would be doing this.
I have lived in Paris, Mississippi,
Rome, Texas, Little Havana & treehouses.
I have held the most idiotic jobs
that you could ever imagine:
I was a picture framer in Florence;
I was a pimp around Jackson Square
in New Orleans; I was a snake farmer
deep in the Everglades.
in New York City, I rented roller skates
to tourists in Central Park on Sundays.
&

for a while, in the heart of Saturday night,
I was a rocking roll star
known as Johnny Majestic.