Monday, May 9, 2011

art quest.

No dragons and shit here. No treasure at the end of the rainbow. This is just about me fighting with my inner demons to get off my ass and discover myself. It's been a year since i posted, and since then i have changed so much. Back then i was on a poetry kick. I still have such a passion for poetry, it will never go away. But now i look at myself and say "what can i do with the skills i have to make money?"

I have found that the thing that comes most naturally to me is making art. Poetry is grounded so deeply in being schooled and having that god damned degree behind your name in the bio. It burns me up. It especially hits home because my very learned cousin once told me that i shouldn't bother writing poetry because people who get published and make a living out of it are from harvard, etc. Honestly? Ok, well since we're being honest at just made me want to go do it more. And succeed. Like REALLY succeed. No bad blood to him, but i wanted to prove someone wrong. Let me tell you, it's hard.

After a while i said forget it. I picked up a pencil again to draw and make art, and i lost that flame too. So i wanted to make some money on the side, but all i could think of doing was what i did for a living: cell phones. Problem? Big problem, conflict of interest. So i had to stop...not that there was anything going on anyway. But i didn't want to lose my job over something so small.

I had an intervention. What was that you ask? Friends. My friends brought me back to the art world, in the little ways that they do. One invited me to a drink and draw event at a local pub. A bunch of artists got together and drew live models while having a brew. Mighty chill, mighty awesome. Another pal showed me the most wonderful website: www.etsy.com which opened my eyes to art as a business. A business! Why didn't i ever look at it this way? And through all of this i have begun to find myself. Slowly, the artist emerges.

4 comments:

  1. another good place to put stuff is flickr - it's sort of the deviantart of the later half of the decade. it's mainly a site for photography, but anyplace online where you can metatag your stuff, and develop a portfolio that's not "hey, look at my facebook album," is good these days. i've also sold a fair amount of photos through there, which never hurts!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good call lou. I'm on it! 552 fo eva!

    ReplyDelete
  3. God gave us the talent of art. So we can't let it go to waste. Nice post man. And kurt you should never step away from the world of art. You have a beautiful mind wait...wait...(no homo). Your very creative dude. So yes in this generation of the world wide web. When you draw a pic and post it online your getting feed back asap that boost your ego make you feel good about yourself as if now your not drawing a wonderful piece and only ur close family sees it. Get back in the game homie. I get sad when I think of how long its been since I picked up a pencil to draw.ever since I started using the art of music to draw pictures in peoples mind. So I guess I'm still somewhat being an artist. But kurt you and ur wife is extremely talented couple y'all should think of writing a kids book.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks jamal. Means a lot homie, and remember...no homo.

    ReplyDelete