Things get a bit odd in my life from time to time. I am prone to moments of surreal insanity that serve to punctuate the long periods of banal existence that comes with working retail.
So permit me to give a little background to this particular bit of insanity, to explain the context of not only the picture in question but the situation in full.
When my father passed away suddenly last year I threw myself, heavily, into artwork again and I drew a lot of faces, this led to me starting a YouTube channel, as you are all aware of, and one of my early videos was my portrait of Mr Devin Townsend.
I have been a fan of his since the early 90s. Enjoying his work with Vai and I followed him into his other bands. He has remained one of my favourite musicians through all the years and one I very much enjoy seeing live.
The chance to see him live in Bristol, on an acoustic show, was not one I was going to pass up.
My wife encouraged me to take this particular piece with me, reluctantly I will add, to get me to give it to him (or at least get it signed).
Being in two minds she soon realised that I was never going to give the picture up willingly, so she took matters into her own hands.
Writing a question under my name, then pointing me out in the crowd when the question was read allowed.
I was royally stitched up.
I didn’t hear the crowd reaction as I scurried back to my seat, hell I didn’t even hear his reaction to the picture.
It seems it was well received.
Hell it even got a mention in the review on Bristol 247.
It is still very surreal.
I will very much miss that picture, it’s a certain point in time for me and is filled with emotion that is hard to explain. It helped me deal with my grief at the loss of my dad, it also helped launch my YouTube channel.
Even though I can most likely create something new and better, I will never really be able to capture that mash of emotions again.
But then as the man says
Though the future is hard to see
If you can’t shine for you dear, please shine for me