Photo by Jon Tyson : unsplash.com/@jontyson
Happy New Year Everyone!
I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays (or maybe you’re still enjoying them!)
It was pretty hectic around here visiting with friends and family. We all enjoyed good food, good company, and even exchanged a few presents, which is always fun. Sometimes I think I enjoy wrapping up gifts more than getting them. Sure, it can take time and I always enjoy figuring out what types of things I can add into boxes to make it hard to guess what might be inside. A textbook here, a few nuts and bolts there, really anything that adds weight and makes noises when the boxes are shaken.
This week I am continuing to write a little bit about myself in order to give people a brief glimpse into how I came to create my art and jewelry. If you’ve been following along, then you’ll know this is part 3.
Questions Answered
Where did your artistic journey begin? (Part 3 - the beginning of The Dreaded Teen years)
Sometime around 6th grade, in the midst of playing D&D with friends, and having “war parties” at friends houses around town–I grew up in a semi-rural town about 20 minutes away from Burlington, VT–where we would run around farm land with cap guns and pretend to have battles–a funny thing began to happen. I started to become interested in…girls. Yep, it was happening, I was beginning to start puberty. It was bound to happen. Now whether or not that had anything to do with the fact that I had a brother five years older than me, or not, I’m not really sure. (The interest in girls, that is. I doubt my older brother had anything to do with my body’s biological clock.)
What I do know is that I wanted to start going to the movies with girls. I did too, and it didn’t take very long before I had flubbed up enough that the other girls in my class (probably 7th grade) either seemed very interested, or, as I seem to recall, lost all interest in me. Was it because I seemed more interested in finding a seat in the back of the theater to “make out” instead of watching movies? Maybe? It seems likely now. Anyway, after a couple of 2-4 week girlfriends, I wasn’t having as much luck piquing interest in me. It certainly wasn’t for a lack of trying. 7th grade came and went. Most things in my life stayed the same.
When I started 8th grade, the fire started to burn. As if in response, the universe saw fit to introduce girls from another school. Mater Christi. A catholic school in Burlington. Somehow, one or two of my friends knew a few people in Burlington and had begun to suggest that if we wanted to meet “real girls” we needed to begin hanging out with more of them. (I suspect that the boys I knew had an inkling that people talk to each other and passed information around. These same boys had figured out that maybe, just maybe, if we got to know girls from another school, they wouldn’t be talking with the girls at our school. Thus our standing with our peers, at our own school, may remain free from the drama of any movie magic gossip.)
Side note: Okay, you may now be wondering, “What on earth does any of this have to do with your art?” Well, have you studied art? You don’t have to look very long through art history books to begin to realize that artists, especially those of the male persuasion, tend to like to study the human form. Particularly, the female form. Oh sure, there’s the statue of David by Michelangelo, but you’ll quickly come to realize that there is A LOT of art depicting women. At least, seen through the eyes of men. I won’t postulate on why that might be here. However, for me at least, I am more inspired by the awesome power of women as a whole. The grace, the mystery, the magic of being able to nurture another human being from conception to birth and beyond. I digress.
Where were we? Oh yes, that’s right. The Mater Christi girls.
At one point, during the fall of 8th grade I think, several of my friends and I were invited to a birthday party in Burlington held by one of the girls from the other school. Gretchen. (I don’t recall her last name.) I asked permission to go to this party, and after what I imagine to be some discussion between my parents, was allowed to go.
This party ended up being somewhat pivotal for me. Not just because the potential of meeting mysterious, dare I say it exotic girls (it was a whole other town after all and I was only 12-13) but because it was a whole new world to explore. At least for me. At this party, Gretchen (who had older sisters) played a bunch of music I had never really heard before at my own school. This was the first time that I recall ever hearing the band The Violent Femmes. It was the beginning of my foray into punk music. Oh sure, you might say that The Violent Femmes isn’t technically punk rock, but it was a band that influenced it. Some other bands I recall being exposed to at this party were, The Kingsmen, The Kinks, and The Velvet Underground. The music was really the pivotal part of the party for me. It’s what stuck.
The other musical influences in my life were the older brother I had (lots of Pink Floyd as well as Prince, or if you must, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince) the older brothers of my friends (Yaz - Upstairs at Erics) and the plethora of 80s movies that came out. Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, The Sure Thing, Weird Science, the list goes on. One of my favorite bands back then was New Order. I also was pretty into The Psychedelic Furs, Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, Talking Heads and The Pogues…all of which would later influence my interest in Punk music.
My family also went to Florida in the winter time sometime during my 7th and 8th grade years and I fell in love with the sound of steel drums. In fact, I remember sitting in my room after we got back. It was snowing outside and I yearned for the tropical sounds of the Caribbean. I began to surf my little brown fake wood clock radio for music that would remind me of the sun and warm weather. Lo and behold, I discovered WRUV. The University of Vermont radio station. It just happened that there was a reggae show on. Pappa Jay was the DJ. I became hooked on Reggae, specifically Roots Reggae, in addition to all the other music I was being exposed to. Couple all of this together with the rise of raging hormones and you get a recipe for, well, becoming a teenager.
I was sold. I was sold on girls. I was sold on exploring new music. I was sold on exploring. Not so much in the external sense, but internal exploration. How I felt. What I thought. Who I was. Music turned out to be the vehicle that allowed me to explore. I could use it to feel a certain way, as well as use it to soothe my heart-achy soul. It was this art form that I turn to to this day, when I work, when I play, when I relax and sometimes, when I just want to be entertained. It was, and still is, a big part of my life.
As the end of 8th grade winded down and the ominous expectations of High School loomed, my little world had expanded. It was the “big band” of awareness that comes as we transition from childhood into our teenage years. It was the real beginning of me trying to figure out how to express myself as a person. As an individual.
Next time:
In my next newsletter and blog post (you can find old newsletters as blog posts on my store/site) I’ll talk about the evolution of my musical tastes, worrying about having my head flushed in a toilet in High School, boys smoking in the boys bathroom, becoming interested in black and white photography (when there was still film to be developed,) and ceramics, as well as general teenaged shenanigans. That is, if I haven’t bored you to death by now.
News of late
The holidays for me seemed crazy this year. I’m not sure why. I think it just felt that way, honestly. So I didn’t make much progress with my work as I would have liked. I was almost finished with a repair job. Something I do my best to avoid unless I’ve made it. Then I managed to snap the replacement chain I had purchased to complete the repair. It happens.
Now I’m working on beginning the new year with a clean slate. Starting the work I didn’t finish with the attitude that it is new work moving forward.
I’m also looking for some part time work that will still allow me to keep building my business while getting me out of the house occasionally during the week. My hope is that I can find something 2-3 days a week to bring in a little money and have time to make some things to sell via my business. Who knew making and selling art in the form of silver jewelry (I also hope to create some of my designs in wood and allow people to buy my designs on things like t-shirts, etc) would take so much time and effort to build up? (It’s a rhetorical question.)
In the Works
I’m working on casting a new amulet in charcoal, grinding down a few Forstner bits to use to create medallions, getting my new website turned on (yes, that’s still in the works,) fixing the necklace I almost repaired, and continuing to work with Vermont Awards to have some of my designs engraved so that I can sell engraved bracelet cuffs.
Until next time,
Justin