The simple truth of the matter is that I have no interest in posting selfies of myself or going into excessive detail about my personal life. Putting up a simple resume wouldn’t hold my interest long enough to even finish this current sentence. The one part of myself I’ve ever been any good and sharing and/or expressing, for better or for worse, is my middling creative side. I dabble in a multitude of creative endeavors, in particular, drawing, writing, and attempting to compose music. My motivation for doing this has always been somewhat unclear to me, but it seems to stem from a desperate attempt to one day put something out there to be more valuable than myself. With those parameters in mind, I didn’t expect it to take this long to achieve.
Something to Pass the Time
The less time I spend thinking, the healthier I tend to be. It’s important for me to keep my hands and mind as busy as possible so I don’t find any free time at all to consider the state of our dying world. Coming up with characters, crafting their backgrounds and of course, blueprinting their visual designs is one effective way of taking my mind off of reality. Interestingly, it’s not to say that I choose to escape into a fictional utopia where everything is okay and utter bliss is guaranteed. Rather, I tend to retreat into a world very much like our own, except the concepts of justice and accountability aren’t entirely fictional constructs.
It’s Not Good Money, But…I Don’t Know Where I’m Going With That.
Although mostly done for my own benefit, the artwork I create is occasionally done in the name of capitalism. One of the hardest things in the world for me is to determine its value – I tend to assume it’s worth nothing, at least if measured by how it usually makes me feel when I’m done. All the same, depending on what I’m willing to draw, projects range from earning enough money to buy an extra treat or two at Aldi to funding a highly unnecessary and needlessly expensive video game Collector’s Edition. I tend to prefer working for one or two well known clients rather than attempting to get along with new people. Not to mention, I’m not especially good at marketing myself, if you hadn’t yet picked up on that. The truth is, while it’s a nice bit of validation to be paid for your meager creative talents, it’s also highly stressful, the pressure to satisfy the expectations of an eager customer at times overwhelming. While it can provide some nice supplemental income, I have no interest in attempting to make a full living off of art, as I’d prefer not to grow to hate and resent it every single day of my life, as opposed to every second or third day, as I do now.
A Veritable Buffet of Okay
As it stands, I primarily focus on 3 creative endeavors:
- Visual Art
- Creative Writing
- Music Composition
I don’t consider myself particularly elite in any one of these mediums, although I’m occasionally good enough to at least get my general idea across. Although visual art is what I spend most of my time practicing, music is probably the medium I’m most interested in, in terms of being both a creator and consumer. In my opinion, music has the great potential to elicit and manipulate emotions, enabling the listener to project whatever they’re most passionate about onto what they’re hearing. Music used as a backdrop for a dramatic scene or moment tends to be my favorite application of it, moreso than a conventional, lyrical song format.
And The Rest
And now, as I contemplate the apparent global conspiracy in place to prevent me from getting care for this tooth I desperately need pulled, I conclude this post with a gallery of various other pieces and hope I’ve hit the word requirement for this assignment now. Honestly, I’m too pent up with pain and frustration right now to think of some appropriate way to end this post so I’m just going to haphazardly end it here and go look for something(s) in my apartment to break.
~Richard
