I have always wanted to be an artist. I have been sketching away since a very young age and find it my most powerful means of personal expression. However, math and the sciences always came naturally to me, so external pressures pushed me along toward a path in engineering.
High school was artistically satisfying. I created a couple pieces that impressed some folks and won me some awards.
Many of my friends figured that I would end up an artist, but I convinced that was a bad idea and that I should pursue an engineering degree in college. I received my B.S. in Electrical Engineering at Ohio University in 2006, taking precisely one art class (an art history class requisite in taking any meaningful arts courses) and doing very little in the way of visual arts during that time. A year of graduate level coursework in engineering and neurobiology later I decided I was burned out and sought out a career.
In November of 2008, I finally landed my first real job as a software engineer. I was never particularly happy in that job, but it did keep me moderately interested (and it paid fairly well) for a time. Eventually, I grew bored and yearned to do something, anything, else with my life. I resolved to finish a piece that I started years ago and finished it earlier this year.
This work by Sean Kirkpatrick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.studioantipode.com.
High school was artistically satisfying. I created a couple pieces that impressed some folks and won me some awards.
Third Eye (2000). Based on "Eye" by M.C. Escher
Necromancy (2001). My first fully original piece.
Many of my friends figured that I would end up an artist, but I convinced that was a bad idea and that I should pursue an engineering degree in college. I received my B.S. in Electrical Engineering at Ohio University in 2006, taking precisely one art class (an art history class requisite in taking any meaningful arts courses) and doing very little in the way of visual arts during that time. A year of graduate level coursework in engineering and neurobiology later I decided I was burned out and sought out a career.
In November of 2008, I finally landed my first real job as a software engineer. I was never particularly happy in that job, but it did keep me moderately interested (and it paid fairly well) for a time. Eventually, I grew bored and yearned to do something, anything, else with my life. I resolved to finish a piece that I started years ago and finished it earlier this year.
Tranquility (2013)
I was laid off in March of this year (2013). Instead of being mad or sad about it, I have resolved to serve my creative needs and pursue life as an artist. I have enough saved to try this out without working for a year or so, and if I must, I can always do software development on a contractual basis. There are going to be many hurdles ahead, but the path forward is clear.
I will be using this blog to document my current projects, notify you of any events I may attend, and... I'm not sure what else. But here we go!
This work by Sean Kirkpatrick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.studioantipode.com.