Inspiration, Music and Madness-A Child's Tale

   This week's blog post comes from the suggestion of a friend. They asked me to write something about me, my motivations and inspiration and that aha moment that made me want to be an artist.
   It turned out to be a more complicated task than I thought.
    As I look back I can't remember a time when I wasn't drawing or singing or telling my parents outlandish stories. Now, of course, all children do this, but for me, some of my most powerful memories from childhood revolve around having a deep connection to music.
   As a kid I used to sneak into my uncle's room at my grandparent's house to play with the old electric organ that he had in his room. I wrote my first song on that organ, "The Darkest Night" at probably 9 or 10. It's funny how I remember the song name after all of this time but can't remember anything else about it. Having absolutely no clue what I was doing I doubt it was any good. But, it was a start.
   About this same time I started getting serious about reading and, to a lesser extent, writing. I remember writing and illustrating my first book a few years earlier for a class assignment in the 3rd grade. "Vampires from Space". I don't think it was exactly what Mrs. Stein, my reading teacher, was expecting, but I still got an A.
   From about the age of 10, I started reading seriously, I had an above average reading level and my mother started buying me the classics. I remember for Christmas that year (1982) I got "Treasure Island", "Black Beauty" and "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". I devoured these books. The Mark Twain book was, by far, my favorite and my mother didn't hold me back from checking out  "Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" from the library.
   Over the next few years I devoured all the books I could get my hands on. I read everything, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mary Shelley (although, Frankenstein bored the hell out of me, I managed to finish it.) Madeline L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time is still one of my all time favorites).
   By the time I was in the sixth grade I discovered S.E. Hinton and Stephan King and many more authors than I can't remember right now, but through that whole period, I was never without a book.
   Now, about this time-6th grade-7th grade-I began a serious turn back toward music. Thanks to the kids on my school bus, I got turned on to Heavy Metal!!
   My parents listened to country music (and some old tired 50's doo-wop) so this was a totally new sound to me. I was quickly, totally, into Ozzy and Motley Crue, Ratt, Judas Priest, Grim Reaper, Metallica.
   I had to get involved in this! I had to get a guitar!
   So in the 7th grade I traded a microscope I got for Christmas for an acoustic guitar. I started writing my own songs (before I could actually play the damned guitar).
   The link between literature and music for me came in Miss Adams 7th grade English class. Part of her curriculum included a semester of poetry. We were assigned poems that he had to memorize and recite in front of the class. The one that sticks out in my mind was "Charge of the Light Brigade" by Tennyson. This poem was epic. It had BALLS. It brought to mind Metallica or Iron Maiden lyrics.With this, I was off on a new path of discovery.
   It was then that I started taking music and literature seriously. The two were fused in my mind. I started studying poetry and practicing it as ardently as I did learning to play guitar.
   My path was set. This was what I needed to do!
 


   Well, folks, it looks like I'll have to carry this over into a part two!!
   Feel free to chime in with comments or questions and I'll continue the story soon.