I have this strange uncanny ability to remember things from decades ago that seem to be seared into this database I call a brain. Thoughts of things that were scary to me as a child appear in my mind as if it were yesterday, I flash back to being in the second grade and my brother tormenting me with the TV guide of just only the print of the words “Creature Feature”. However, in my mind I can visualize a scary face just within that text. Scary monsters were just a small portion of what my imagination had in store for me, I had a plethora of things that were of other scary sorts, getting in trouble in class was scary, falling down and scabbing up my knees from my untied shoes was scary. Going to sleep in the dark without a book to read and fall asleep to was really scary… there was always something hiding under my bed…
Some Things are Scary - Book 1969
It seemed back in the day there was not as much visual stimulation as there is today, the scary things of this generation are they are right there, pretty much in your face - plastered all over the movie posters, commercials, Internet, magazines etc., the imagination factory is out of business… maybe… or just on temporary leave.
I believe that the power to create in my own mind was acceptable. I mean heck, it was just me thinking this, it did not seem unacceptable, to me at least. I am perfectly fine and the objects or visions that I create with my over stimulated power of thought was just darned normal. I was the hardest critic on myself and that lead to stride for perfection.
At the age of 8, I had a cardboard store in my room, the fascination with being a business owner was truly a spectacular thought, I had imaginary customers, my made up products, a typewriter for my register and my dog Snoopy to keep me company. In my mind my imaginary store was an entrepreneurial enterprise. This is what I believe was the right way to do things, I just emulated what I saw the department stores do, how the commercials marketed their products and it all made sense.
Today as an artist, a business owner, designer and marketeer of a very visually centric style of products and business model, I take the things that in my life that were/are scary, enticing, flavorful, disappointing, disturbing and for the most part, comical and use my imagination to give life to something so visually interesting.
Dream City - Created 2000
Creation, straight from the brain is the best way to catch and release the most in depth inner workings of ones self. I used to the one most feared by my own imagination for how wild it would got, but after many years of conditioning my thoughts and getting closure to the silliness of it all, I have such a pretty ecclectic database of thoughts and memories, these are sure to explode into something that will truly tell a story about who I am and what’s really ticking.
Hmmmm, maybe that ‘is’ scary after all.
