February 11, 2007

6 Things of Oddity

daveart.jpg

1) My name is weird... no two ways about it.

2) My real last name ought to be Knez... but my father dropped the K because people pronounced it as if they were sneezing. My grandfather came from Slovenia, which is a gorgeous province in northern yugoslavia near the alps. There's a village there where everyone seems to look a great deal like a Nez.

3) Apparently Nez is about like Smith in Navajo. Lots of Navajos used to dial me up from the phone book... usually collect from out of town. People refused to believe I wasn't Navajo.

4) I once studied to be a violin repairman. I play the viola... or should I say I played the viola. Haven't touched it in years... alas.

5) Brahms and Tschaikovsky share my birthday... they played the viola too. Weird!

6) Being an artist is weird. Making the art isn't weird... but all the scheming that goes along with making a living at it sure as heck is. It's weird to be so insecure about everything even after all these years. Why wake up at 3 am and wonder if I can even paint? That's gotta be weird.

granny2.jpg

This week's picture at the top is a sculpture done by my big brother... David Nez. He's an artist too... a fine artist. He's also an astrologer. Once he tried fixing his computer with a dowsing rod! That's weird!

Picture down below is one of mine... from a fun book idea I worked up.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was so funny! I loved the part about waking up at 3am. It is such a confirmation of being a normal Artist! HA! Or are we all weird?

Anonymous said...

I don't feel so bad now! I thought I was the only artist waking at 3 a.m. with those thoughts! What a terrific post John!

tlchang said...

Does that waking up at 3am NEVER go away then? I think I'm bummed...

Anonymous said...

Hmm. I think you should know that Slovenia is no longer (since 1991, that's 16 years) a northern province of Yugoslavia, but a fully independent country, and joined the EU in 2004. They even have the euro since January this year.

Time you visited your roots.

John Nez said...

Thanks ya'll... so I guess there's a 3am club of sorts, with everybody waking up and wondering the same nebulous thoughts I do.

Thankfully they mostly vanish in the bright light of day.

Amy C. Moreno said...

DId you Make that piece of artwork? It is fantastic.
It's nice to know we're all wierd together in the insecurity dept as artists.

John Nez said...

The wall sculpture is by my big brother Dave... he's a 'fine artist'. I've got a whole house full of his art. Someday it'll be worth millions.

But meanwhile, he's still more of the 'starving artist' type, even though he has regular art gallery shows and all.

It's hard making a living from art!!!

gail said...

Fun oddities John! I guess insecurity and creativity just go hand in hand. It sure is rampant out there.

gail

Anonymous said...

Your work is amazing,I love the detail in your illustrations.