Demystification...

I think that in the course of having this blog and interacting with others in the blogosphere, a lot of rumors and myths have arisen about me. They are not necessarily negative or bad, they just are made more of fantasy than reality. I've kept a list of these things that either people have asked me, said about me, or that I've overheard. I'd like to take this moment to dispel some of those myths.

1. I'm not independently wealthy. As much as I wish I were, I'm sadly not. In fact, I'm woefully in debt from student loans and poor financial planning early on. It may seem like I'm living some glamorous life, traveling around the country and making things all the time, but I travel for work and usually the things I make are for sale and not just for the pure enjoyment of making something.

2. I don't sit around and eat and make things all day. Again, I wish this one were true. I would love to just create, indulging in making things and enjoying lots of yummy food, but I engage in more drudgery than most people imagine (and my diet usually consists of carrots, coffee, and slapdash sandwiches and quick pasta). Much of my time is committed to paperwork, deadlines, and trying to fish out different opportunities for my work. The latter is the most difficult. I am lucky that I have the support of my family, friends, and loved ones.

3. Speaking of loved ones, I'm not single. With that said, I'm fiercely protective of my privacy. Some people flaunt their wealth, and others, like me, horde their valuables and hide them away from the world like a dragon.

4. I live in Pennsylvania now. I know it doesn't seem like I post about my new home very much, and for good reason – I'm on the road a lot and haven't been there very much. I would love to be able to settle in and nest in earnest, but this relates to the first myth about me not being independently wealthy.

5. I'm not a wise, old sage. I'm not enlightened and am 100% flawed human. I am far from perfect. I laugh loudly, I cry, I yell, I fight, I curse, and I like the occasional beer. I have scars on the inside and on the outside, I've got messed up teeth and I have bad acne. Busted as I am, I'm okay with it all. I've come to realize that every scar has a story.

6. I don't think that you have to go to an art school to be an artist. Had someone asked me that my freshman year of art school, I might have disagreed. But after having gone through the higher education process, I realize that no amount of schooling can teach passion. And if a person is passionate about seeing and making, all the classes and credits are just a formality. Life is the best teacher, and if someone is serious, the world is laden with lessons.

7. I'm not religious. Believe it or not, at one point I was a board member of a church, but those were different days. Oddly enough this demystification has a lot to do with the previous one and with the third in this list. I am staunchly protective of my thoughts on the spiritual, but if you're really interested in hearing what I think – take a look at one of my paintings. It's all there.

8. I don't hate Christi Anderson. I don't know where this rumor started, since I've only had one exchange with her, but I don't hold any ill-will towards her. (I really don't have any ill-will towards anyone come to think of it.) Perhaps it's because I work with my family who owns a metal-smith based company and she also works with metal, and sometimes drama and gossip are proliferated in niche communities? I find this funny because some of my favorite people are also involved in the metal community and I think that there's room for everyone.

9. I don't hate feet. While they aren't my favorite things, I actually did a series of "foot studies" for a drawing class. I think that the origin of this was in a blog post I made about keeping promises. Basically I said that I wouldn't make any grandiose promises that I knew I couldn't keep; I did promise never to take pictures of my feet and post pictures of them on my blog. (I have been successful in keeping this promise.)

10. I'm not 147 years old as some of my profiles might suggest. The mystery of why I don't reveal my age boils down to three things: 1. I was the victim of malicious identity theft when I was first starting out and for several months couldn't even get a phone line installed. 2. It's a tradition my mother started. 3. It's another label people use to pigeonhole others. I'd rather someone judge me on my accomplishments and merits, the deeds I've done, rather than an abstract number attached to imaginary expectations of how someone should act and what they have done or haven't done. This was particularly problematic earlier on when I was applying for jobs and despite my credentials and experience was turned down in favor of individuals who looked the part.

Well, I think that those ten things are a good start to demystifying the fiction that has surfaced since I've started blogging and is a little bit closer to the real me. It's important for me to be genuine. I am a real person who struggles, fails and makes small triumphs like everyone else.