Do you also paint, sculpt, draw, etc?

[Percy]

I've been drawing (primarily people) for at least 35 years (started as a wee lad). First picked
up a (digital) camera a few years ago to acquire subject matter from which to paint...
Long story short, I have been addicted for about 3-4 years now. Found I liked film a lot more
than digital, 645 more than 35, 6x6 more than 645, and just ordered an 8x10 today.

Zeiss, I was hurt under your arm! Look for me tomorrow, and you will find me a...
gravure... man. :-)

[Mark Sawyer]

Interesting responses to an intriguing question!

While I have a BFA and did the mandatory painting/drawing/sculpture classes, I always felt the "mandatory" part, and felt I was a dabbbler in someone else's medium. Photography always felt like where I should be, though it's difficult to explain why, even to myself...

But I own an old house which is slowly being restored, (just put wainscoating in the bathroom!), and enjoy building little out-buildings in the backyard, (three so far), building furniture, and landscaping/gardening. Cooking also rates as doing more than just fixing something to eat, especially when friends are involved. These activities often seem as creative and rewarding as photography.

[gene LaFord]

I have a MFA in sculpture and taught it on a part-time basis for a few years. During those times I did paintings, drawings and some photography.
When the kids arrived on the scene, I was a full-time MR Mom, part-time sculpture teacher and part-time camera salesman. Free time to pursue artistic endeavors was really limited. Photography then became my artistic poison of choice ( I had been dabling in photography all through college) and I enjoy it greatly.
Now that the kids are almost out of the house, I may start doing some painting again in the near future.

[Wayne]

I used to scribble drawings in college when I wasnt paying attention, ie most of the time (I chose the wrong major, science instead of some useless but satisfying artistic field), but thats about it for visual arts. I've always written things of little or so consequence, journals, very short stories (VSS), poetry, rants, and general drivel. I have conceived ideas for much longer written works and even movies but dont have the focus or worth ethic to see them thorugh, so I wisely dont start them. I recently (and unfortunately, belatedly) started learning several musical instruments and started writing songs, which now consumes most of my time and is currently my favorite form of wasting time.

[Struan Gray]

Paul, Leigh, it's nice to have some agreement. I'm always surprised at the vehemence with which people on both sides insist on the seperation of the Two Cultures. It always seemed baffling to me because I got the same feelings and emotions out of an elegent bit of science as an elegant bit of sculpture or painting - or architecture or pottery for that matter. Those with synesthesia have experienced similar insistence that they can't be feeling what they know full well they are feeling, and indeed can't avoid feeling even if they wanted to.

I know a lot of mathematical musicians, but then also I also know plenty of musicians who avoid triple time because counting to three gives them a headache. The link is not inevitable.

I have been blessed - or cursed - with a general visual awareness that permeates my whole life, even when never given formal expression. Heading south from Lofoton one Easter, my friend and I had driven in relays through the night, and started looking for a spot to eat breakfast somewhere in middle Värmland. We passed sparkling lake after sparkling lake, but my friend eventually pulled off beside a pile of shit-brown snow at the edge of a clearcut and happily started setting up the stove on a bed of slimy gravel. He conceded that the sunlight-dappled lakeside beach I forcibly decamped him to had considerably more charm, but I could never persuade him that it was worth the effort.

[CXC]

As a software guy for 25+ years, I have to disagree with the science = art folks. The satisfaction I take after a good day of coding is completely different from that I get from the camera, or from the harpsichord. They may bring the same smile to my lips, and the same endorphin to my brain, but the intellectual processes are independent.

While it's true that music such as Bach's has a clarity and perfection to it that is reminiscent of math and logic, its auditory qualities place it into an entirely different realm. For apples vs. apples, you'd have to compare some math equations and the music score, silently. IMHO.

I know this is a minority opinion, but there it is.

[Mark_3899]

I draw, paint and sculpt, although not so much anymore. Photography was sort of the family business and has always been a part of my life. When I can make time outside making a living it is pretty much photography at this point. I received my BFA in 1985.

[Richard Årlin]

I started as a printmaking artist, copper engravings mostly but everything exept lithography and silkscreen, all b&w. I am also a hand-paper maker including building a stamper-beater, wirescreen loom and papermoulds and I am now cutting stamps for my second hand-cast typeface. I use it in books illustrated by burin engravings, woodcuts and photogravure. I have been photographing for fun, mostly b&w with Leicas until I got a second hand 5x7 monorail for a book. I now mostly use an Ebony SV45TE for enlargings and a Shen Hao HZX 810-IIAT for contact printing. I just recieved a box of Cenntennial POP eager to try it out with 8x10

[John Alexander Dow]

I guess I am the only potter so far. For work I am a systems developer but this does not fully satisfy my creative streak. Pottery and Photograhy do. Incidentally I am a much better potter than photographer although a lot more of my time and effort goes into photography.

JD..

[fred arnold]

Personally, I caligraph a little on the side, and hack around in the garden. I agree with Struan, to a point, but I'm a structural chemist, so we tend to get various pictures as a byproduct of the work. Every now and then you'll get one that's both pleasing intrinsically, and worth playing with to get an inspiring illustration. The old, "that's a lovely molecule, but the bonds should really be in pale, metallic, green, to highlight the structure".