Your art is what you do, it is your unique voice in the world. there is no art with out someone to share it with. Share your art for the joy of it! Don’t listen to anyone who tells you what art is or isn’t.
George A Walker – INK & PAPER
I’ve spent a lot of my life pursuing art in varied and disparate forms. Some of my earliest memories are scribbling in note books and making drawings of what I thought were cool “guys”, robots, or cars. I became enamored by animation as a youth and loved to watch a variety of cartoons. Early in college I planned to go the musician route tooting away on my tuba, but a lack of interest in a career centered around tuba killed that dream. While in music school though I found myself making posters for all the musician friends at the Music Conservatory. Finding that love to be something worth pursuing I decided I moved into a new major focused on the study of Multimedia Arts, which gave me a foundational understanding of computer design, website design, photography, video production, and sound design.
I also was able to explore painting, figure drawing, and still life with a much higher level of focus with my Studio Art minor. I fell in love with expressive ink works and splatter. I even dabbled into the theater arts for a while as an actor. I moved on to taking photos with the onset of digital DSLR cameras, surely annoying my friends with photos taken around campus and after graduation.
I had a lot of confidence issues in myself about my creative pursuits but after not being able to figure out how to make a career out of art those confidences waned. I took a few years off from really doing much output out of a fear of people not liking what I’ve made. My career path took a much more technical route due to my skill and technical prowess with computers, but I have always kept a note book on me and an incessant need to doodle in the margins of meeting notes.
I’ve learned to let go of that fear of rejection now I spend my weekends and weeknights seeking creative endeavors. I still play tuba some times, want to get back into Improv comedy, and I am always working on a painting or two. Weekly I attend a Figure drawing class and have joined the South Arts Pittsburgh organization as a board member, helping them host Gallery shows at the South Park Schoolhouse. Most recently I have been focusing on Linocut print making. There isn’t enough time in the day to pursue every opportunity I crave but I will always try to make time for it. You should too.