{"id":1070,"date":"2022-09-13T23:45:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T23:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/?p=1070"},"modified":"2022-09-13T23:45:54","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T23:45:54","slug":"art-journal-september-13-2022-the-artists-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/?p=1070","title":{"rendered":"Art Journal- September 13, 2022 “The Artist’s Path”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Drawing has always been a passion of mine.\u00a0 In hindsight, growing up in a turbulent household likely heralded a steadfast journey along the artist\u2019s path.\u00a0 During my youth, there were times when my mother allowed me to stay with my grandparents.\u00a0 They lived in a very small town, near the north Georgia foothills.\u00a0 Their house was very old; an icebox in winter and a sauna in summer.\u00a0 However, it allowed for lots of quiet time.\u00a0 I went on many expeditions in the surrounding woods, gloriously lost within my imagination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My grandmother kept one of my earliest drawings.\u00a0 It\u2019s embarrassing now, to be sure, and I of course don\u2019t remember drawing it.\u00a0 \u201cI love the farm\u201d\u2014proclaimed its childlike scrawl (below a rendering of a farm with questionable livestock roaming a field)\u2013\u201cthere are lots of animals.\u201d\u00a0 As time went on, my interest in art took inspiration from more eclectic sources: comics, video games, children\u2019s dinosaur books, and animation.\u00a0 In the mid-1980s, shows like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe<\/i>, as well as films like Ladyhawke<\/i>, The Neverending Story<\/i>, and The Last Unicorn<\/i> captivated me.\u00a0 Art which adorned the arcade cabinets of the time, such as Galaga<\/i>, Pac-Man<\/i>, and Crystal Castles<\/i>, also served as a heavy influence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At the onset of my teenage years, while I still loved the science fiction and fantasy subject matter of my childhood, I began to seek out other types of stories, without caring so much if the narrative appeared in the guise of a comic book, film, play, or slice-of-life novel.\u00a0 I grew to love the works of Tennessee Williams, Armistead Maupin, and Scott Heim just as much as I loved the film Blade Runner<\/i>.\u00a0 By the time I headed for college, one particular novel captured my interest and married my love for sequential art with a slice-of-life autobiographical story: Craig Thompson\u2019s Blankets<\/i>.

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While attending SCAD, I began to write my own slice-of-life stories and translating them into sequential art.\u00a0 During a lecture given by my writing instructor, Mark Kneece, he read aloud a script for one of my slice-of-life comics.\u00a0 Afterward, while receiving feedback, a fellow student turned to me and said, \u201cDo you really think a comic book is the best place for a story like this?\u201d\u00a0

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My reply and immediate thought: \u201cWhile it\u2019s not a story that will necessarily be for everyone, it\u2019s a story that has the ability to resonate with some.\u00a0 Genre and form are almost secondary.\u201d\u00a0 Years later, with A Home Without<\/i>, I hope to bring a good story into the world that resonates, especially with LGBTQ readers and all who have known the turmoil of a fractured home.\u00a0 Thus far, I\u2019m so overwhelmed by the support for this graphic novel through Kickstarter and humbly thank each patron of the book.\u00a0 There are many stories in this world, of which this is one.\u00a0 We\u2019ve made excellent progress toward the fundraising goal\u2014let\u2019s keep going!\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Warmth and Kindness,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Don Gaddis
https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/bdzdu55t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAlways go a little further into the water than you feel you\u2019re capable of being in\u2026 go a little bit out of your depth\u2026 and when your feet aren\u2019t quite touching the bottom, you\u2019re just about in the right place to do something exciting.\u201d\u00a0 \u2014 David Bowie<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drawing has always been a passion of mine.\u00a0 In hindsight, growing up in a turbulent household likely heralded a steadfast journey along the artist\u2019s path.\u00a0 During my youth, there were times when my mother allowed me to stay with my grandparents.\u00a0 They lived in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1071,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions\/1071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sassysparky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}