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Ken Barber's avatar

"There are only two things that people ever buy," the CEO of a company I once worked for said. "Good feelings, and solutions to problems."

I'm an artist. Not a very good one. But it's important to me.

I am abnormally Left-brained. Logic, science and Reason rule my values. Machines make sense to me. People don't.

I might be autistic; I don't know. But the creative side of my brain seldom finds expression -- and, like autists, seems not to be connected normally with the rest of my brain.

This might be why music -- and sex -- has an outsized influence on me: it seems to me that I get a lot more pleasure / enjoyment out of music than most people.

Perhaps that's because its the only time my Right brain gets to come out and play.

I've tried the performing arts and I'm no good at it. I cannot act. I'm not very good at playing an instrument or singing, even after a lifetime of working on it.

Still, music takes me to a place where I normally cannot go. It's important to me.

Now, the visual arts is something I can do. Most of my creative expression is via photography. I'm halfway good at it, but not enough to make a living. Still, that is my passion, and the reason I get up in the morning. It is what's keeping me alive. Most of what I do is because I'm a photog. For instance, I'm a Jeep fanatic. But it's because I'm a photog: my 4WD gets me to places of immense natural beauty where most people can't go.

Maybe it works for me because photography requires a lot of Left brain activity. Things such as calculating exposures, and understanding color, and "darkroom" work (which is all done on computers these days, something at which I excel). There is a lot of technical stuff to the craft.

If only I could make money at it. But most people don't pay for good feelings unless you're REALLY good at it. I made my living providing solutions to problems.

So anyway, that's what art is to me. It truly is from the heart, and is the only way I can express that side of me.

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Ken Barber's avatar

Wow. That really is from the heart.

I have some things to say, also from the heart, about art. Can't find the words right now. I'll post it later.

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