#55) On moving some place better (part 12: the starving artist phase-- South Beach, FL)
Summary: The idea of the "starving artist" is one, which during the first part of my time in South Beach, I revered and practically worshiped. It's one thing to tell you about my "aesthetics" specifically, but quite another to tell you about how I conceptualized what an "artist" is, how I evolved in the sense of identifying myself as an artist, and the story behind that evolution.This story begins with my father who was a photographer and a painter who possessed extreme (maybe excessive?) fascination with female sexuality, nudity, and pornography, and who exposed me to the imagery of female sexuality before I was even a teenager. It was through my father that I was also exposed to and influenced by the works of Picasso and Van Gogh. As far as my own interests were concerned, by the time I was 9 or 10, I discovered the world of television, movie acting, and John Travolta. In fact, Travolta became my hero and idol. I became a sort of expert on his career and he is one of the earliest direct influences in my attempts to conceptualize art, as well as career, and to have a career as an artist. Even before I developed a conscious love for movies and acting I was, it seemed, inherently creative. I would pretend my life was a series of television shows. I would determine theme songs of these "TV shows" and when nobody else was around, I would ever pretend to give interviews about them or explain what had happened "previously on..." whichever imaginary show, or what would happen in the next "episode."Through studying the works of Travolta (along with Tom Hanks and other actors) I grew exposed not merely to film acting performances and a notion of career, but also I became a kind of autodidact of film in general, specifically film dialogue and the themes in movies, such as race relations, the Holocaust, American history, love, art, et cetera. The girlfriend I had while living in South Beach, was, herself, an aspiring filmmaker with a profound passion for film. By the time I was living in South Beach I was more interested in poetry than film but the notions of art and film that propelled my artistic inclinations as such were so deeply embedded within me that despite other problematic aspects of our relationship, our shared love for film became a foundation for our romance. (TO BE CONTINUED...) ***PUBLIC COMMENT is a podcast presented in the form of extemporaneous personal essays about a political, philosophical and artistic millennial as he tries to wrap his mind around the complexities of the human experience.****Visit the Official Public Comment Podcast WebsiteListen to the Public Comment Podcast on Radio Public Subscribe to my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/seanoconnoressays/featured Visit me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/publiccommentblogFollow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/publiccomment.blog/Tweet me at https://twitter.com/sopubliccommentConnect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/soconnorwritingtutor/ Email me at sean.publiccomment@gmail.com
