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Influences — Podcast Season 2 Episode 4
Welcome to episode 2.4 — Today I want to talk about my earliest influences. All of my Podcasts are intentionally short because I get bored listening to hour long podcasts. I apologize in advance for reading a script and not sounding like I’m having a conversation with you but I find if I don’t follow a written script I end up saying “Uh” way too much. The script for each episode is published on my Patreon page [https://www.patreon.com/yourartdude] prior to each broadcast release and the scripts are also published on my Medium page [https://yourartdude.medium.com] following the broadcast. I hope you will follow me and support me on my Patreon page. See all my links at the end.
Just a quick note about my social media pages, my Instagram was recently hacked so I now have a new Instagram page [https://www.instagram.com/official_yourartdude]. Ok, I’m going to jump right in.
Some of my earliest memories of influences are of bands who were popular at the time. I was born — and as a side note, I am OLD — I was born in 1960. This was a dramatic time to be alive as the Baby Boomers born during and shortly after World War Two were becoming young adults and were rebelling against the cultural and political structures of the time. John F. Kennedy was President of the United States and was assassinated in 1963 when I was only 3 years old.
Eight months later The Beatles released their first film A Hard Day’s Night in the summer of 1964 a month before my fourth birthday. I watched the film a few years later on television and was immediately captivated by their music. Little did I realize at the time that The Beatles had released their White Album by the time I was enjoying their earlier releases so I was a little behind the curve due to my young age. The Beatles still had a strong influence on me during these formative years.
Around the same time I was introduced to a new television show about a band who was struggling to become discovered and break into the music business. This television show and the band were The Monkees. Much can be discussed about how this band was created and put together but the members consisted of two musicians and two actors who became musicians and history bears out that The Monkees were a real band who had a significant influence on the music and culture of that time which resonates to today. The Monkees had a huge influence on me during my pre-teen years.
I still grow nostalgic when I hear the music of The Beatles and The Monkees because my memories of my youth are of an innocent time when life was simpler and slower. Kind of like a Buddhist styled memory. I still like to watch the television shows on YouTube as well as the films by both groups and the documentaries about the Monkees which aired on VH1. While I greatly admire these Artists for their Art, I am saddened — and to be honest, I get misty — when I think about how many of the members of these two groups are no longer living because it helps me to realize that I too have a limited amount of time in this life.
It was during this time when I was eight years old that I began spending a great deal of time contemplating dogma and trying to figure out what the purpose of my life was about and why I was here. I know a lot of eight year olds don’t spend time thinking of these things, they are thinking about baseball, barbie dolls and riding bikes but my time was spent trying to figure it out. When I was giving this matter some lengthy thought I spent that time alone in isolation, simply walking around in nature where I could be alone with my thoughts.
Any time I see old photos of people from the past 150 years, I wonder about those people. I am talking about people who weren’t famous, photos which candidly captured a moment of their life. I am curious who they are and what their lives were like, what happened following that photo of them at that moment. If the photo isn’t very old, I wonder if they are living. I wonder if their families and friends remember them very often and if they have fond memories of the times they shared. When I was eight years old I wanted to be remembered after I was no longer living and I wanted to leave a “Glenn was here” stamp in time.
I ultimately decided to devote my energy to creating ART and sharing my Art with others. I never sought approval or popularity from my Art because I never considered my work being liked by others as important, it only matters if my audience FEELS something when they see my work. They may like it or they may hate it, but if they feel anything at all then I have succeeded and my Art is successful. I sometimes now wonder if any of my Artwork will survive long into the future and I am curious about the impact my work will have in the future.
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