Art Is Alive In Durham North Carolina

I recently was sent to Durham North Carolina for work. I dreaded going out there because I assumed it would be boring. How stupid I can be. In this life there are people everywhere that are genuine and loving. There are people in this world always hospitable and arms open to new people and visitors. I spent the first weekend wasted looking for a bar to forget I am away from loved ones. It was like that feeling all over again when I was in the USMC serving in Jacksonville North Carolina. Away from home, do not know anyone….ETC…. Here it is different. I am an artist. I have a very universal interest that people are so open to share. I looked online and saw the Golden Belt. It is an old factory turned into working art studios, galleriy, shops, tattoo parlor, living lofts for creative people. I was fortunate to catch the art walk there. It was wonderful. Just about everyone of the studios were open with artists to meet and greet. I talked mixed and mingled and felt right at home. I felt so comfortable just walking around looking at the art. SO many people were visiting and buying art. It was ALIVE! So many people to mention that I met…The memories will be precious.

I also wanted to listen to some music and visit a rockalternativepunkish bar or cafe. I drove down the street from the golden belt and ran into a couple and asked them where a good place to have a beer. They said go there! The Pinhook! At first glance it was dead. I figured oh well. I will just have a beer and go to my room. The Pinhook is a place where people come late and stay later listening to live music…hanging out. Mondays was movie night. They have a very large screen movie theatre size! The owners take turns watching the bar and talking to the patrons. Each one of them made me feel at home. Nick, Liz and Kym. All I can say that there was an energy there that made me happy inside. Thank you Pinhook.

A Justified Distraction

i know lately it seems as if though i have been feeling a bit negative in my rants. maybe i am just trying to let the stuff go because i really do not like letting this stuff out to my loved ones. so instead i let it out here where it doesnt bother anyone. i would hope that the few three or four people that read my blog can learn from i am going through creatively. we all have personal problems that get in the way sometimes...or for better words become a distraction. none of the reasons that can justify to stop creating. a commitment to doing something we love or to use our gift to heal our souls by cleansing. cleansing through creating is is very therapeutic. letting go our fears and giving the world art is very rewarding. art gives life to creativity and inspiration. we assume the role of motivator and role model. we give life to thought and instigate emotion and feeling people might have not felt in many years. through a painting we can help people heal. we can give life to someones soul that has appeared to have died. art takes on a life of its own once created. it transforms. i can go on in so many directions as to how art is life giving. so much so that if this is so and we are so gifted with this task as artists. there is no excuse to stop.

i am too sad to paint...paint your sadness!
i am too depressed.....heal and let your soul speak!
i am too busy....slow down and live before you have a heart attack and create!
i dont know what to paint.....scribble some lines and play connect the dot with the paint and paint an abstract!
we all have distractions and also created excuses at one time or another....the only justified distraction is death or being crippled from head to toe or in a coma.....

im still here. i am still giving it my all. we all struggle at times to keep our passion for creating. we want to create all the time. sometimes our lives take priority over our passion. that thing that we love to do for ourselves. that interest we have that gives us hope to be ourselves. most of us are in a job or situation that does not match what our dreams were as children. we dreamed of being something larger than life. or at least we dreamed of doing something in our lives that made us happy everyday. we might be have accepted our current situation and find happiness in it.....but we all had dreams. my dream was to be an artist.

i spent a lifetime of visiting that dream here and there. just as quickly as i dreamed i had to forget about it because of my fears. recently i tackled my fears and embarked on my journey as an artist. it has been a life changing event for sure. my life is completely different right now than it was a year ago. a year ago i could only laugh at the idea that i would be referred to as danny the artist. it is hard work. it is not easy. it takes sacrifice and commitment. i almost gave it up a few days ago....because of those fear coming back. self doubt. but because i have immersed myself around people that are like minded artists who are so positive and are committed to being artists for the love of it and no other reason.

my journey has taken me through so many changes in my persona. it has forced me to re evaluate who i am and how i look at life. an artist at any level cannot have clutter in their minds. we have to be clear of what we want to create and have a purpose to why we create. in order to create passionately we have to be honest with ourselves. look in the mirror and create! in the end....i cannot stop creating this time. i will work it out. i will create for the sake of creating but i will not give up. i love all of you that support me.

Artistic Depression

Do you get depressed sometimes because you cannot seem to create anything? Does your emotion of the day and feeling rest on whether or not you can get something out of your head to manifest into a painting or piece of work? I seem to slip into a funk really fast when I cannot create my work. Lately I have not been happy with my results of what I create. It seems to snowball from there. The days go by really fast. I do not create anything from which I thought of. I look at images for inspiration and use reference as my subject rather than create something from my soul. I feel fake and do not feel worthy of people looking at my art because of the fear that they will see right through me.