Voices from the "Past"

Last night we went over to Sarah's folks' place to help celebrate her mother's birthday. Of course, one of the first things I needed to do was wrestle with my two nephews. I almost died when the youngest one came running in from the other room wearing a little mesh Spider-Man mask− adorable, and certainly reminded me of myself at that age (I was a huge Spidey fanatic).


Later in the evening, Sarah's dad brought out their old video camera, and we started watching some old home movies of her family. It was fun to see Sarah as a kid, and a little startling when she and her two siblings each appeared on camera, wishing their mother a happy birthday... it was almost like voices from the past connecting with the future!


I took a workshop at the Omega Institute in the Hudson Valley a few years back with the writer of The Artist's Way− sort of a self-help book to help you ignite your creativity. One of the exercises we had to do was write a letter from ourselves at age eight and 80. It sort of took me aback, because some of the advice I received from my older self was unexpected and assured (i.e. that I would find a very rewarding career, including the creation of graphic novels). From my younger self, it reminded me that I was a very creatively-driven child, who would work tirelessly on artistic pursuits and knew that was what he was meant to do.

One of those pursuits was doing little "radio shows" with my friends. The other day as I was going through my storage in Hudson, I came across a box filled with these tapes, which I had created on a little recorder I was always carrying around (along with a Polaroid camera). I didn't know I had these with me, and also realize that they are probably but a small portion of the many recorded shows I have somewhere. 


Anyway, one of these afternoons I might just have to don my own Spidey mask, and listen to some of these shows... there is something almost mythic about them to me. As I get older, I find it can be a lot more challenging to give myself the time to just let loose and be creative. Here, I have a pretty extensive document of myself doing just that as a young artist... hmmm...
I wonder what secrets will be revealed on the hours of magnetic tape?...