The glimmerings of being immersed in a creative activity seem to have been with me – or in me since the beginning in Northern Ireland.
I think, back then, linked to music coming out of the radio.
In those distant days, wireless broadcasts were a very mixed bag. You might hear show tunes, folk songs, a bit of jazz, comedy records – mostly, ghostly remnants from other eras. This was long before we got a telly. Before the unstoppable Beatles, even.
Before the modern world got going.
I would draw. Or even imagine little pictures, often containing things I’d seen in nature that had caught my eye.
Musically, the stuff which made the biggest impression on me, or certainly the earliest abiding memory – was the drum-driven 1950’s rock n roll – those songs leapt out into my space. Kind of interrupted my trance state. I was always in a dream.
Noisy, exuberant, intoxicating and frequently strange records. I still love hearing that music. I didn’t realize it then, but they were nearly all made by youngsters – black or white – enthusiastic outsiders making an instant, new art form…..if I hear any of it now – it makes me want to paint. Or dance. Or stare into space with smile on my face.
So it was, and is still the case, that, for me – music, art and nature are all inextricably interlinked.
Melodies, moods, mental projections into the future. Happening now.