Every creative person that has ever existed has their influences. Many of them are in our own fields. But plenty of them are outside of our fields as well. I can list a dozen authors that have played an integral part in driving me, but it’s not just authors I draw inspiration and motivation from.
For one thing, I am a huge Star Trek fan. I have been for a long as I can remember. Growing up I watched it a lot with my dad, as well as Lost in Space, Dr. Who, and others. I also play a lot of video games, and some of my earliest memories are of enjoying them with my dad.
Over the years not all my influences have held up as people I should admire. That kind of disappointment is both painful and normal. It’s why it’s dangerous to hold people up on pedestals in fact. But it also doesn’t change the positive impact they had on my own art. If anything, finding out they were flawed (some dangerously so) has inspired me to do better. Art is flawed because people are flawed, but that doesn’t mean we can’t strive to be better than those that came before us. Especially now, we need people to look up to, and the artists I follow now, that I look up to, are people that tend to reflect the morals and values that, at least, I’m okay with. Ideally, I’d vibe with more than just a few of the things I stand for, but I aim to at least look up to people that hold ideals I don’t find problematic.
But with all that said, it was my dad who was my biggest influence. He spent much of my childhood sharing his own interests with me, and it shows in a lot of things. To this day he’s one of the few people that I know will love something as much as I do, and vice versa. We’ve spent so many hours together sharing our mutual love of both fantasy and science fiction that there are very few things only one of likes. My dad is just as flawed as anyone else, and it makes it hard to connect with him sometimes. But it also doesn’t negate the positive influence he’s had on my career, and that’s something that I’ll always credit him with.
Still, people are human, and no one is perfect. There isn’t a soul on this earth that I agree 100% with, and that’s okay. After all, it’s our differences that make the world go ‘round. As long as it’s not dangerous or problematic I’m okay with being different from others. There are a lot of ways we can disagree without causing problems. As long as someone isn’t advocating for violence or human rights violations (or animal rights violations for that matter) we can agree to disagree on many things. Giving people the grace to be themselves can help us all, and accepting people as they are, they can still have a positive impact on our art and our expression of those feelings we all hold near and dear.
I don’t talk to my dad anymore, but it’s not because I don’t love him. It’s because I can’t save him, and to keep myself safe I stay away. It has nothing to do with how I feel about him. He is, to this day, one of my biggest influences. He’s always been proud of me, and he’s always been quick to remind me too. While it hurts that I have to stay away for my own safety, it doesn’t negate the positive impact he’s had on my art. And I’ll always be thankful that he spent so much time and effort sharing his own passions with me. For all I stay away, it doesn’t negate the profound impact he’s had on my own art. And I’ll always be thankful for that.