Are you an artist?

[VaderBomb]

If so, which form do you specialize in or enjoy to create the most?

I enjoy songwriting but the act of performing my songs in front of a crowd has always felt strange to me personally. I'm currently working on my first feature length film and have two seasons of a public access television show under my belt, so I'd say that my strengths lie mostly in the visual arts. Cinema, primarily.

[EmperorWu]

I'd say no for me.

It's awesome that you have public access experience. I've always been very Intrigued by it. It seems like it would be a ton of fun to have your own show where you can do your own thing.

Can you tell us anything about your experience? What did you do? Was it on air, did you work behind the scenes? What kind of freedom do people have when it comes to the content they want to broadcast? Or is it more like a low budget network where they decide pretty strictly what they want to air. Any interesting stories or thoughts?

I'd really love to hear it. Also good luck with your movie brother.

[Hanley!]

Yeah, I've always been a creative type. I started playing piano when I was 4, and had written out the sheet music for my first song by the time I was 7. Nowadays I play more guitar than piano, and have written a number of songs on guitar. I used to play live with rock bands, but over the last few years I've mostly just played as a part of casual music sessions in the pub or at home with my friends.

I concentrate more on other forms of writing these days though. I'd love to be a professional author; that's my dream. I write articles and short stories and I'm currently putting together a novel too. That's my big pet project at the moment.

In one form or another, I've just always created stuff. It's maybe my biggest hobby. Whether it was acting as Dungeon Master for role-playing games or using RPG maker to create my own games on the PC as a teenager, I've been inventing stories for as long as I can remember.

[Everlong]

I've always been a musician and a writer, so in that regard I'm something of an artist. I currently sing with two different (very good) choirs, and also play the saxophone and guitar. I dabble in a bit of songwriting for guitar, and have written a couple choral music arrangements. I also try to write creative prose and have been working on a novel that god knows I'll probably never finish

[Viazon]

I like to think of myself as an artist.

I stack pallets in a warehouse for a living. Sometimes you gotta get creative. It's not always as simple as dumping boxes on top of each other. Sometimes you gotta take your time. You gotta assess the workload. You need to know where to put which boxes and what would be the best way to make the pallet as stable as possible. I see some of my co-workers ugly ass pallets and I feel disgusted. Boxes sticking out. Heavy boxes on top of small boxes. Un-even top layer. It just looks unprofessional. I'm proud of every pallet I stack and wrap.

If I didn't make my job out to be more important and worthwhile than it actually is I'd probably kill myself.

[Everlong]

^That's actually pretty awesome Gotta appreciate the little things.

[Viazon]

If you've got a job to do, you might as well do it well. That's how I've always thought.

[Locke]

I used to design websites and forums, I used to oil paint, I used to write lyrics. Got married, got a job..
Most of my art outlet these days is when I build something in Minecraft.

So I guess I used to be an artist. I guess haircuts are kind of an art, but not art that I have interest in.

[War Daddy]

Incoming cheesy bodybuilding post.

For me building my body, my way is the most purest form of art I can think of for myself. My body is the canvas and the weights are my paint brushes. Or you could say, my body is like a sculpture, if I need more size I just put more clay on. If I need to cut, I just chisel away, while making the tiniest adjustments. Every day I set foot in the gym is just another opportunity to create the vision I have for myself.

So yes, I consider myself an artist.

[Kein]

I like pencil drawing, I don't do realistic drawings too much, because I'd rather take a photo. I like black and white and shading, I used to do a lot of anime, and I guess I still do that style, but it's more anatomically correct, and heavy on the shading than a comic mangas style of drawing.

I dabble on the bass guitar here and there, I am not very good but I would like to be better. It's hard to find enough time in a day to really get this one going for me, but when I sit down and play it is for hours.

I don't build them but I take care of them, and I feel knife caring is a bit of an art. Play with them, take them apart, clean them, oil them, sharpen them. I have a small collection, and I adore how they look, even if I will never have to use most of them for anything.

I wouldn't say my body is a piece of art like Alpha, however I can kind of relate in terms of my martial arts class and how much technique, and critique goes into each move. It is an art that I am part of.

[AkydefGoldberg]

I came across this quote from King Eric Cantona, legendary and mercurial talent in English football in the 90s, said this on artistry

Football is art and Best was an artist. Not every picture is a good one; all art is about trying to explain yourself. Everyone can do that, the man behind the bar, the man sweeping the streets. It is up to those watching to decide if you are successful at your art. But it is all art. You are an artist if you explain yourself with beauty, with particularity.

[PorkChop]

If you consider martial arts an art form, yes.

I'm shit at art, drama, music, dance (I'm a white male, which puts me at a handicap when it comes to dance) and all the other creative arts though.

[VaderBomb]

I'd say no for me.

It's awesome that you have public access experience. I've always been very Intrigued by it. It seems like it would be a ton of fun to have your own show where you can do your own thing.

Can you tell us anything about your experience? What did you do? Was it on air, did you work behind the scenes? What kind of freedom do people have when it comes to the content they want to broadcast? Or is it more like a low budget network where they decide pretty strictly what they want to air. Any interesting stories or thoughts?

I'd really love to hear it. Also good luck with your movie brother.

I could tell you a bit about the experience, and thank you for the kind wishes concerning my movie!

A friend of mine (we'll call him Steve, because his name is Steve) was working at the Community Access Media program at the town hall. His job consisted of filming town meetings, editing many of the shows, operating the camera for much of the material shown on the local channel and more than anything else, sitting around and surfing the internet while something active came up.

Steve had mentioned to me before that he thought that my best buddy (Jarrid) and I would make for some good TV, and I wasn't too keen on the idea at first. I was writing a screenplay at the time and felt not much passion for making a TV show. Hell, I didn't even watch TV aside from wrestling, South Park and not much else.

A few months went by and Steve had offered us the chance to do a show multiple times and I began to rethink my priorities. I was basically done with my script and had a sudden creative burst to do something really silly. The idea was to go onto TV and basically fill dead air, talking about stuff that interested ourselves but hardly bordered on the mundane. We did a few episodes in this manner but like most things that are alive, it evolved.

The premise of the show was that we'd attempt to do as much as we could in real time, mostly improvised in long takes lasting up to and surpassing an hour. The whole thing was super meta, and our real lives definitely overlapped with our characters and it kind of became a local hit. It seemed to me that our audience consisted mostly of high school kids and senior citizens. Our show happened to be playing Channel 9, every night at midnight and because of that, people who were skimming through the basic networks, PBS (2), CBS (4), ABC (5), NBC (7) would inevitably stumble upon our show because of the low channel number.

We did two seasons (13 episodes, with a finale that will be made in five years) and in my opinion, the show got better with each successive episode. As far as my work behind the scenes went, I basically wrote, directed, edited and produced the whole thing, aside from the improv of other actors which mad up a great portion of the show. Steve helped me with the technical aspects of editing and I handled all the creative stuff.

The network wasn't strict but Steve often became paranoid about airing the more controversial material, but eventually we ended up getting away with murder. We had one episode that got banned from TV after one airing after I refused to censor the abundance of "curse words" that were used. Censoring that specific episode would have destroyed it's integrity and despite not airing more than once, it exists.

I plan on putting the whole show on YouTube within the next couple weeks, and if anyone has any interest I could link it over here. I would share more stories, but I feel that the show speaks for itself.