The Idea of World Building…
My son is a gamer and he and I have shared years of joy around his escapades behind comics, D&D, and his vivid imagination. I knew of world building from when I taught the littles, they seemed to ooze the ability to run rampant with their imaginations in creating characters, settings, and extraordinary things. I so miss those days in the classroom.
When I first comprehended the importance of the name ‘Ardithian’ I was working hard to get my painting and teaching business off of the ground. Characters seemed to just flow and I sketched and painted them more quickly than I could ever write them. For a while there it seemed that the book, or painting with words, was being let go and the fine art images were exactly what my heart desired at the time. Still….there was always the longing to look out into my environment and tell stories about those characters…if only I had the time.
The years were really good to me in the past decade. Physically, I was able to find a balance between the daily pain I experienced with my body and my ability to ambulate, work, and travel. I was told by my doctors that due to the placement of my screws and how my discs deteriorate so easily, there would be a huge risk in my spine failing at anytime. Those words stung but I simply believed I was meant for greater things so I would go down fighting with everything I had.
During my worst years I was on 14 meds a day including Morphine and Fentanyl patches, which was brutal. By the grace of God I was connected with an amazing physical therapist and his prescription was to begin rehabbing in a salt water pool after each of my surgeries. Over time, and as my creativity and skill increased my body began to respond as well and I found a way to let go of one medicine at a time. This helped my brain gain clarity and my desire to paint and teach others swell.
With all of this medical stuff came a lot of time sitting on my bum. I had to heal, I had to sit or lay or recline more than any human should, so I did. With that stillness came a lot of moments of daydreaming and thinking and giving myself permission to be intrinsically ridiculous and imaginative. I assigned normal objects names, found characters in the wood grain of the ceiling above my bed, and found an absolute love of combining words with ideas and concepts that shouldn’t go together. All of this led to me spending copious amounts of time world building around The Land of Ardithian, Arlynn, Phintenton Maxwell Pendicrassican III along with Minterton and Clairebony. Through the cities, towns, and forests the children journeyed and the adventures ensued. It was fun and delightful, but I wasn’t serious about it yet, just aware and using it to help me spend still moments with brevity and wonder.
My first iteration of Phintenton Maxwell Pendigrassican III
All the while I was painting and learning to master the craft of painting my figurative abstracts, non-representational works, and sports art. I learned the business side of the industry and also was able to embrace the teaching side of my skills again with an online audience and eventually, traveling workshops. I love teaching, I simply do, and all of this combined has created a rich, imperfectly beautiful life of being able to work and contribute. I have landed gallery representation, been published, had multiple solo shows, and traveled the world teaching, and it has all been extraordinary.
Every step of that way though has carried a tiny container of a voice inside my head that reminded me to remember the Land of Ardithian. In fact, as I taught my business students, I challenged them to dream big, make short and long term goals, and apply the action steps to get there. Over the years I have reached every single one except seeing my project here to fruition, so now is the time. Walking the talk is must here and I am excited to commit the now and will trust and hope that my body supports my decision.
For my world building fans, my approach is soft world building. There is a wonderful looseness to my plot and story that will encourage readers and viewers to explore their own versions of my characters and their stories. The introductions of my character sets will weave poetry that follows some rules but completely breaks others by design. And my paintings, sketches, and tech influences will all play a role in seeing this creative project unfold.
One of my magical Aquarianoctofins, Opistolly Doflini!
Overall, I will most likely confuse the serious, bore some, and cause some industry purists to want to scream, but at the end of the day I will choose a creative path that feeds my heart and soul. In this short window of time I get on this spinning rock, that is all that matters.
