humble (re)beginnings

This 6′x4′X12 room while tiny represents a paradigm shift for me. It was almost 6 years ago that I walked away from doing special effects make-up. Quite a few factors played into this (my own chemical dependency problems, and a string of bad luck – including an unnamed effects artist who took me for 10′s of thousands of dollars when he had me “invest” in his upstart company, and then sold it, and  ran with the money)

But all of that is behind me now. Perhaps some of you would see this as a somewhat fool-hearted venture. With films like Avatar pushing the envelope of what can and cant be done in the computer realm, the guys that make rubber monsters in warehouses days seem to be numbered. Well, perhaps in one way that is true. However, I have long since given up the idea that I going to make money from my art. At 35 years old I’ve decided that now is the time to fulfill my destiny. There are very few constants in my life that have always been here. One of them is my being a vegetarian. I took the initial plunge at 15, and while there were a few liberties here and there for the most part I have stuck to my guns and remained a non-meat eater for that time. I can’t even imagine waking up and wanting to eat a hamburger. It’s just not me. The only thing in my life that has been there longer is special effects makeup. It was the making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller that made me realize I had to do this. And that was in the third grade! Now that I am older (and hopefully a bit wiser) I want to do this with the same passion that I felt when I made my first full head sculpture. When I want to be driven, I am DRIVEN however I seem to lose that drive quite quickly, and go back to wondering what I should be doing. Now I know.

So that small room is the beginning of a change for not only me, but this blog as well. Soon you will see not only photographs of abandoned spaces, and models but sculptural works in progress. (along with the occasional cd and dvd review) I want to use this blog for more of what is really going on with me, not just my feeling like I HAVE to do it. There is no obligation this time. I am doing ALL of this because I WANT to. I hope some of you will stick along for the ride, I have some really cool projects in the wings including a <a href=”http://www.thezombieopera.com/”>Zombie opera(!!)</a> and a few other things that will keep it interesting. For now though, I sign off…

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 7:56 am and is filed under Photography, Pittsburgh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.