nothing special

this is just me  nothing special just a place to say the things that I think and hope someone sees.

my name is Tracy…obviously.  I’m an artist…or more aptly, I’m a creative person.  However I choose to express that is my art.  Primarily I am a scenic artist and theatre tech.  For those of you who don’t know, a scenic artist is the person who paints the sets for theatre. 

Theatre people are a special kind of crazy.  We work incredibly long hours doing sometimes extremely hard physical work, for little or no pay, and we love it.  Don’t ask why.  It’s in our blood.  When I stand back and look at what I have created,  there is no other feeling like it.  Theatre is where I feel alive.

I spent seven years living in Hollywood and working in the “industry”.  I did some movies and television and worked for a major production company.  I got to meet a lot of celebrities and found them to be just ordinary people.  I had a great time but I love theatre here in Connecticut.  I have met some extraordinarily talented people here, including my best friend Paul.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Right now I work as the assistant to the Director of Education for an arts school that is part of the theatre I work in.  I love that we are doing something to bring arts to kids and teaching them to be creative.   Personally I believe that developing your creativity helps you to cope with life, and working in theatre helps to bring out self confidence in kids. 

I also make victorian hats, though there is not a big market for them.  I learned how to make them while working on the play “Ragtime” and fell in love with the art.  Recently I have been learning how to make masks, and it is something that I want to make into it’s own kind of art.  I love to create.  To take disparate materials and make something completely new and beautiful.  Even just to take words and create a powerful emotional response. 

Music is one of my big loves, and I sometimes feel like life should be underscored, just like the movies.  I don’t like rap, hip hop, heavy metal and other “music” that is nothing more than discordant noise.  I think music can uplift and that negative types of music can be damaging to the psyche, and effect the body negatively and create dis-ease.  I love show tunes (of course) and like to say that Bernadette Peters voice will bring world peace.  Ok, that’s silly…we all know it’s really Mandy Patinkin.

I am ridiculously liberal in my views of the world.  It has always been my belief that we are all here to take care of each other.  I don’t like violence and am a huge pacifist.  While I try to be spiritual, I don’t believe in religion of any kind.  I have done a lot of research into all the various religious structures of the world and find that their biggest common denominator is the need of humans to feel there is something outside of ourselves that is all powerful.  I like to believe we are all responsible for the lives we create.  Is there some all powerful force that created the universe?  I don’t know.  It’s nice to believe there might be something we can turn to for guidance and deliverance, but maybe it’s better to believe that we can create any reality we want to live in.  I don’t like the idea that my life is not in my hands…for good or bad my life is my creation.

I love to read.  I have read hundreds of books over the course of my life, and not a few cereal boxes and toothpaste tubes in a pinch.  I prefer literature to fiction, although I profess to be a shameless Harry Potter fan, as well as a fan of cheesy spy novels and occasionally a  romance novel or two.  I love Douglas Adams books, he was a genius with words.  Mainly I like to read books on history with particular emphasis on ancient history, books on politics, physics, metaphysics, religion, sociology, feminism, biographies and art.  Shakespeare is a given, as well as Jane Austen, Lewis Carrol and Dickens, among others.

I’m very into metaphysics, as hokey as that may sound.  I read tarot and am interested in astrology.  I have taught meditation as a tool to relax and relieve stress.  Meditative breathing can have a very positive effect on the body and relieve many stress related illnesses.  I find it very helpful with migraine headaches.  I have delved into physics and found many correlations between quantum physics and metaphysics.  I find quantum physics fascinating, particularly Schroedinger’s Cat.  Although I understand that quantum physics are applicable on the atomic level, I believe they apply to our daily lives as well.

I try to make my life something more than existance.  I hate the thought of doing the same thing day in day out.  Life is meant to be lived, not just survived.

welcome to my blog.

~ by tracypaints on October 8, 2008.