My Whole Creative Life Story

My Whole Creative Life Story

     My first committed true creative outlet came when I was 14 and I just couldn’t stop writing short stories. I read a lot of books of the mystery and horror genres and with all of that input, I needed an outlet for my own imagination. Over the course of about a year I wrote approximately 150 notebook pages worth of short stories. 

     Although I did take an art class my sophomore year in high school and I’ve always dabbled a little bit in art, writing was my main passion. I worked hard on our high school literary magazine and became one of the chief editors my senior year. By that time I was writing more poetry than short stories. But, I also acted in our plays and in some short video pieces. I really wanted to do it all.

     In college I continued writing short stories and took classes in short story writing, as well as poetry and screenplays. My attention shifted from writing to wanting to make movies. So, I changed my major, dove in and began writing, directing, acting and editing in my own films. To top it off, I worked on other people‘s films. 

     Beyond college I still made lots of short films and I wrote scripts for my sketch comedy troupe Hoover’s Blanket. I also jumped into improvised (comedy) theater for about eighteen years and performed in over 1000 shows during that time. Improv is an amazing creative outlet and I happened to find myself in a couple of good troupes and duos. These collaborations were accepted into various improv festivals across the country. Confidence Men: Improvised David Mamet was my favorite troupe and we were selected as the best improv troupe in Austin, Texas, for two years straight.

     In addition to performing, I directed some shows and coached a bunch of troupes. I created and performed in a bunch of beautifully crazy one-off shows. Improv made me a better actor and a better short story writer. Short story writing and video work also helped improve my improv.

      Improv is interchangeable with just about any other form of creativity. It teaches you to make decisions quickly and perform them in myriad ways. It taps deep into your subconscious to turn up the material you are going to need right now. Then the next moment and then the next moment and the next. It is an art form where you are writer, director, actor, collaborator. and editor. Right now. Yes, go. Do it. Right now! People are watching you!

      Having to create a story out of a simple suggestion with other people in front of a paying audience is the most blissful kind of nerve-racking energy in the world that I would go through every weekend. Sometimes there were failures and sometimes there were huge successes. But those in-between times you were just doing what you could do with your partners to survive in the moment. In the end, after every show, all of it was scrapped to move on to another show. Totally disposable, totally addictive. Totally a lifesaver for me and many other people.

     For various reasons the amount of improv I did begin to decrease tremendously. I didn’t even realize how few shows I was doing in comparison to the past. Things in life such as relationships and trying to find work took up more of my time and I was becoming ill without really knowing. My energy was being zapped.

     I started doodling. I went to a dollar store and bought a bunch of ink pens and poster board and just started drawing. I had always liked drawing when I was growing up but I definitely was not an artist.  Not like many of my friends I have known over the years who are tremendous at painting, sculpting, drawing. All of it. 
​
     In 2019 I moved home to live with my parents. I never went to the doctor to find out what might be wrong with me because I kept thinking it would be something to just pass. But I definitely was not myself in the eyes of those who knew me…I truly realized a couple years after the fact. I couldn’t find work and so I dove into Doodle Art. And then I started sharing doodling with my friends through the mail. I really enjoyed it and started thinking that it might be something I could possibly do for the rest of my life.

     If I could figure out how to make it into something more than just sharing doodles. In other words, a job of some sort. Income. I started doodling more with friends and family and gradually got more and more sick until one afternoon I was found passed out on my bed with an extremely low blood pressure and was whisked off to the hospital. A couple of days later when I came to, I found out I had cirrhosis of the liver and double pneumonia. Doodling would have to wait.