When I dreamed of being an artist…

When I was a young’un, I drew pictures all the time. I even dreamed of one day being an artist. I wasn’t thinking like an adult at all. Because an adult would think: OK, I want to be an artist. Can I make a living with this? What kind of artist? Who’s the audience? Still images or animation? Photography or free hand? Pencils or a mouse? Of course, back then, the computers were not equipped to do artwork. We had an Apple IIc and about all I remember doing on that was playing Dig Dug. I can hear the music from that game in my head!

All I knew is that I loved drawing. Here are a few drawings from late high school/early college:

I drew all through middle school, high school, and a few drawings here and there in college. But in college is when my creative side found a new path. It was shooting and editing videos. I would sit in one of the school’s production rooms with 2 VHS tapes and put together mediocre videos, having so much fun doing it. Actually, I’m particularly proud of this one:

Around my junior year I bought my first video camera. That summer, I decided to record something every single day. Good times! I captured some pretty random clips, mostly involving my roommates, friends, and a miniature R2D2 figurine. Of course, R2D2, right? I’d post a clip but the tapes aren’t even… well, they’re actual videotapes so that should explain it.

As the years went by since that summer, I developed a real liking for this creative outlet. Like drawing as a child, it was a way for me to make something that I liked to look at or watch. It made me happy, and I really loved when it made other people happy, too.

As a grown adult it’s become ingrained in my life, and that doesn’t surprise me, actually. I should’ve known when I got my first video camera in 4th grade (a Fisher Price video camera) that something deep down was being stirred.

To this day I still shoot video, although I feel most effective when I’m editing. Another outlet for my creativity nowadays is this… writing! I love getting thoughts out of my head and onto the computer screen. Not just for people to read, but it’s a way to organize different thoughts I’ve been having, express things I believe, and practice the art of writing.

Pretend the words are a dancer, and you’re writing a dance.

My creativity is expressed differently now than it was 30 years ago, or even 20 or 10 years ago. But I’ve loved every stage of it. Every once in a while I’ll go back to that first love of mine, getting out the colored pencils to draw. It might be a butterfly. It might be a maze. (I’ve had a weird obsession with drawing mazes for a long time. Here’s one I never finished from a long time ago)
No matter what it is, it does my heart good to sit down with a pencil and a blank sheet of paper.

-Out of the Wilderness