Since I'm on an even tighter budget than a backpacker, selling a painting goes along way and means two weeks of fuel, food, and supplies. So as far as breaking even, I'm getting there.

What's some of your favorite artwork (work that, perhaps you cannot bear to part with)?

There is one that is special, and it's an early piece (I appreciate works only after some time, as if time has ennobled them with a certain romance). It's my surfergirl painting, "Noon at Sano." It has my rough marks of last year, something which would be hard to recreate now.

It's a reminder of things I left behind and things I'm coming back to. Surfing in San Onofre or Swamis on a sunny summer's day is something that has no equal in taste, smell, or color. I intend to realize more versions of it when I get home, such as Monet did with Rouen Cathedral....

Are you concerned about the international climate right now, does it make you want to come back home?

I refuse to have anything do with ugly & stupid things and treat them with the utmost indifference. Thus, I dontt even bother with the news anymore. There will always be wars, always be injustice, always be greed, however, I have but one life. Thus, I devote my attention to the beautiful things of this world: music, food, art, travel, adventures, etc., and give 'worry and fear' the finger. For me, to go back on any account outside myself would be to fail in perpetuating the spirit of my adventure.

When are you planning on returning?

July 11, 2003 (I left July 11, 2001). However, you never know, I might stay a little bit longer. I'm not too far from Egypt and Tunisia after all. I wonder if NigelinAfrica.com is taken, hmm....

As you're answering these questions, where are you, and what are you doing?

Today is a perfectly gorgeous day (a cloudless blue sky) in the Provencal countryside. I'm reclined on a deck chair in wanton disregard of any responsibility or cares. I'm warm, and I just want to lounge like this for the whole of the afternoon. Two really lazy dogs keep me company.

- How many subscribers ("fans") ;o) would you say you have?

My e-list has about 320 addresses that I send to whenever I update my website. Apart from family and friends, the list consists of people I've met on the way, mostly other travelers. Hopefully, with a little bit more marketing and word-of-mouth, I can take my project to a wider audience.

Do you update when the spirit moves, or do you keep a
regular email/site update schedule?

At the start, I was updating once a week, but fell into updates once every two weeks. Sometimes, I am at such a place where I can't update for awhile. This is agony for me, since I also can't send or receive emails. There are lots of journal entries that have only photos...this usually means I got lazy. This will be filled in later when I write the book. I just hope I remember everything I did 1 year or so from now.

Your work combines such lovely surreal elements with a strong toehold in reality. Who (or what, or what artists) inspires you?

Thank you. I listed my favorite artists in one of the journals entries. But off the top of my head, Da vinci, Micheangelo, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, Degas, Constable, Turner, Velasquez, Okay...I can go on and on, seriously.