I grew up in a semi-rural location. It was quiet, mature and terribly boring, so I had little choice but to travel to meet up with my pals — and this meant that I was in a lot of different and pretty diverse groups, bands, teams and gangs.
I had pals in one group that would never — ever, in a million years — get on with pals in other groups. That was part of the fun!
Mind you, it was not entirely black-and-white, cut-and-dried; I knew a few guys who liked art AND motorcycles, others who liked art AND music, others who liked music AND motorcycles, if you see what I mean.
But largely speaking, there were distinct groups of pals — and I would hang out with the guys who loved album art and who painted motorcycle petrol tanks, then I would see guys who played guitars and drums or the guys who played rugby with me!
Heck I actually had a pal who was incredibly shy, he liked to listen to music and was into hi-fi, but hated musicians and avoided bikers! So it was more about keeping everyone away from each other than anything else!
The result was that I picked up a bit of this and a bit of that. I played a wee bit of guitar and bass, I did some sketches, I played a wee bit of rugby, I dabbled in hi-fi, did a bit of writing. I think I did rather well as a talentless will-o-the-wisp, I may not have been any good at any one thing, but it was always fun… and still is to be perfectly honest! Today, my wife is constantly amazed at the wild diversity of my acquaintances!
Anyway, for myself, I sometimes try to merge one thing with another. I painted rugby players, I photographed rallies and speedway, and the above are the results of my attempt to blend guitar playing with art!
I discovered some old schoolday sketch pads from 1977, and thought I would embarrass myself by putting them up here on the world-wide web! Hey, why not? They are decades old and of no use apart from this sort of thing — maybe they will spark something in some real artistic soul that wanders across this blog. You never know. All I know is that all my life I have been about cross pollination between disparate social groups, why should it stop just because I am unable to get out and about as much!
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davedevine 