"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.
Damn I miss you Ken, so I’m going to respond to your beautiful reply the way we did back in the good old days with Graylands and the bulletin board, just for old times sake.
>>"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."
That is fantastic advice! Wish I heard that long ago as I’ve been groping around in the dark.
>>I'm an artist. Not a very good one. But it's important to me.
Dude, your photography is absolutely first class! I think a lot of it is luck, the people who make huge bank at it just happen to be at the right place at the right time. You try and improve your odds with the Jeep, and you shine at it.
>>I am abnormally Left-brained. Logic, science and Reason rule my values. Machines make sense to me. People don't.
Capital Logic and Reason, eh? Well, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger here, people are…, well… people… irrational, quirky, unpredictable and can crush your feelings. My table saw or planer will relieve me of flesh and bone and not feel a twinge of neither guilt nor satisfaction.
>>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 may sound crazy, but I think we all have various degrees of autism and why psychedelics are emerging as a potential aid in helping people reach the other half of the brain. Personally I believe we also have a bit of Tourette’s (how many times I’ve dropped an F-bomb inappropriately!), perhaps even some dyslexia, possibly even latent repressed homosexual desires? I don’t know.
>>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.
True on the music for sure. An intimate connection with another sends chain-lightning across my brain and leaves me short-circuited – TILT – TILT! I don’t know what to say other than making relationships work is something the brightest minds fail to explain. I think it is all charisma, if you have that, it goes a long ways, even when you screw up..
>>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.
I think we both connect there, buddy. We just respond to different types of music, something inside moves us. At least my music doesn’t suck – ahem.
>>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.
Shut up, you crush it! Again, that million-dollar shot is just a matter of luck, like capturing an eagle grabbing a fish from a pond by being there at the right time, or witness to an event either natural or human caused. Pictures of that instant a mountain explodes or a bullet does something ghastly.
>>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.
Now I understand. Can you imagine having the wherewithal to be able to do that every day? I’ve suffered a series of health issues that go all the way back to birth. The things I may have accomplished had it not been for major setbacks (not to mention getting scammed after 15 years of work down south). If you only had the funds to go off camping in the woods and take pictures all the time. You might be able to build a certain cabin in the woods!
>>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.
And your mental aptitude is most amazing. Gosh dang, the paths we choose with the finite time allotted to the sack of meat we call a body. We get old and frail and reflect upon what we should have done had we made better choices. What a bitter pill, at least for me.
>>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.
Beautifully put and an insight into what makes you tick. Thank you so very much for sharing, it means a lot to me because, as I’ve said many times, I value our friendship tremendously and wish you nothing but the best.
What does a rap 'artist' say when he stops smoking crack?
"What's that horrible noise!"
Haw Haw, I was just messin' with you Ken, I know you are kind of partial to country/western, so it was low hanging lol's, like pushing the buttons of people on the old bulletin board, oh how people would get boiling mad!
Anyway, I wasn't trying to offend. I'm totally sorry you put up with her blech. That cancer is not allowed in our house!
Please do, I hope your prints have been picking up interest. Your Substack posts are fabulous and I look forward to them all, albeit sometimes it takes me a while to sit down and give a new post a thorough read, they are all very interesting and the photography breathtaking.
"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.
Damn I miss you Ken, so I’m going to respond to your beautiful reply the way we did back in the good old days with Graylands and the bulletin board, just for old times sake.
>>"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."
That is fantastic advice! Wish I heard that long ago as I’ve been groping around in the dark.
>>I'm an artist. Not a very good one. But it's important to me.
Dude, your photography is absolutely first class! I think a lot of it is luck, the people who make huge bank at it just happen to be at the right place at the right time. You try and improve your odds with the Jeep, and you shine at it.
>>I am abnormally Left-brained. Logic, science and Reason rule my values. Machines make sense to me. People don't.
Capital Logic and Reason, eh? Well, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger here, people are…, well… people… irrational, quirky, unpredictable and can crush your feelings. My table saw or planer will relieve me of flesh and bone and not feel a twinge of neither guilt nor satisfaction.
>>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 may sound crazy, but I think we all have various degrees of autism and why psychedelics are emerging as a potential aid in helping people reach the other half of the brain. Personally I believe we also have a bit of Tourette’s (how many times I’ve dropped an F-bomb inappropriately!), perhaps even some dyslexia, possibly even latent repressed homosexual desires? I don’t know.
>>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.
True on the music for sure. An intimate connection with another sends chain-lightning across my brain and leaves me short-circuited – TILT – TILT! I don’t know what to say other than making relationships work is something the brightest minds fail to explain. I think it is all charisma, if you have that, it goes a long ways, even when you screw up..
>>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.
I think we both connect there, buddy. We just respond to different types of music, something inside moves us. At least my music doesn’t suck – ahem.
>>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.
Shut up, you crush it! Again, that million-dollar shot is just a matter of luck, like capturing an eagle grabbing a fish from a pond by being there at the right time, or witness to an event either natural or human caused. Pictures of that instant a mountain explodes or a bullet does something ghastly.
>>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.
Now I understand. Can you imagine having the wherewithal to be able to do that every day? I’ve suffered a series of health issues that go all the way back to birth. The things I may have accomplished had it not been for major setbacks (not to mention getting scammed after 15 years of work down south). If you only had the funds to go off camping in the woods and take pictures all the time. You might be able to build a certain cabin in the woods!
>>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.
And your mental aptitude is most amazing. Gosh dang, the paths we choose with the finite time allotted to the sack of meat we call a body. We get old and frail and reflect upon what we should have done had we made better choices. What a bitter pill, at least for me.
>>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.
Beautifully put and an insight into what makes you tick. Thank you so very much for sharing, it means a lot to me because, as I’ve said many times, I value our friendship tremendously and wish you nothing but the best.
Dave
You could have left out the part about other people's musical tastes "sucking."
My most recent ex was into rap. What I call crap. I never, ever criticized her for it.
What does a rap 'artist' say when he stops smoking crack?
"What's that horrible noise!"
Haw Haw, I was just messin' with you Ken, I know you are kind of partial to country/western, so it was low hanging lol's, like pushing the buttons of people on the old bulletin board, oh how people would get boiling mad!
Anyway, I wasn't trying to offend. I'm totally sorry you put up with her blech. That cancer is not allowed in our house!
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.
Please do, I hope your prints have been picking up interest. Your Substack posts are fabulous and I look forward to them all, albeit sometimes it takes me a while to sit down and give a new post a thorough read, they are all very interesting and the photography breathtaking.