Artist biography for Rybird. About the artist and photographer, stories, background and behind the scenes.

Rybird

I create art to feel alive, I create art because I feel alive.

The creative process.
The entire creative process, whether it be art, photography, music or any other form didn't begin with me until I had surrendered my way and will.  Some of the best advice I ever received was when I had reach a point of despair, and someone said to me, “Why don't you try letting life happen instead of making life happen.”  I was able to try that  then as I had nothing to lose and up to that point, fear of letting go was in the way.  And I  found life along with living with myself to be acceptable after ceasing fighting everything and everybody.

Still to this day, I can be my own worst enemy, as all blocks to any creative success or any area of my life have been myself.  My old ways of thinking creeps up, the ego, and “I” get in the way.
By surrendering my self and my ways, the door was opened, desire is born, and life begins anew with creativity.   The painters canvas starts with a blank canvas, just like a photographer starts with a fresh roll of film, or flash card these days, and I reached that point.

So now I begin each day I  try to employ these principles.  By not creating a personal agenda, I have free creative space.  And a clean palette for the day doesn't relieve me from responsibilities, instead it frees me up to meet them.  I find the most important asset of the entire creative process is being available.  I need to be available to receive,  and to stay out of the way.  Instead of making it happen, let it happen.  And it has been working for me, and I am thankful.

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Rybird Phoenix Logo

About the birds.

I am in the city suburbs of the southern . U.S. but I have a family of wildlife, in a small area. The chickadees sing when I am preparing the feed, the redbirds waiting nearby,  If I don't show up, they come get me. The squirrel runs and jumps on the bird bath and looks at me telling me with his tail to take notice that it needs water.  The Mississippi kites say hello as they fly overhead and the stray cat asks permission with a sulky body gesture if he can stay longer to watch the birds.  The sparrows are a family  that lives in the cherry laurel tree and has one appointed as the guard sparrow that warns the others when I come outside. When I walk into the back yard, the birds scatter and take their positions in the trees.  Each squirrel has a name and a personality, one  will pop his head up asking me if I am going to disrupt his eating or am I just watching while the other runs home, the same way he always does, only one day to be stopped by a  Coopers hawk hunting from the power line.  The hawk raises his wings to warn the squirrel he is hunting but the squirrel uses his tail to tell him a  human is near, The hawk looks at me, back at the squirrel and says ok and flies off to another spot while the squirrel continues home.  This squirrel did that because I once wasn't paying attention and I interrupted his escape path unknowingly.  I am always learning, watching, and I feed them before I feed myself.  I have had birds trapped in bird feeders, in my truck and one die from the heat.  I try to always rescue them from their predicament.  I keep the areas clean to keep the parasites down and move things around, and never give them more than they absolutely need.  We have four redbird pairs, five squirrels , four doves,  20 sparrows, two chickadees, the others, come and go and when there is a hawk, the sparrows hide in the holly bush and the mockingbird chirps his daring chirp from the top of the magnolia tree.  I understand what the animals say and they only know my habits and movements.  They are wild and full of fear, and joy, fear that they will get eaten if they don't pay attention and joy, as they can sing and fly and the ones that don't fly, like the squirrels are always smiling,  except at the cat. Poor stray cat. no one likes her, yet they are loved.  I have learned much about myself, people  and the universe by watching and contemplating nature with an open heart and an open mind.  Ry

Rybird Original Logo designed by Les Smith.

It was a big black square with dark purple writing, and I was excited, it was Christmas morning, 1972 and I was 11 years old. It said in wide raised letters, Master of Reality. Yes it was a Black Sabbath album and I was happy. I couldn't wait to put it on the turntable and crank it up. The heavy bass sounds and guitar rifts were something mysterious to me, sorta dark, as I was at the entrance to a whole new world of creativity waiting to be explored and explore it, I intended.
Up to the point my childhood was normal. I had piano lessons and was still taking them at this time. My Father, Vollie Brown who had grown up on Jimmy Rodgers and Hank Williams, showed me the various three chord patterns along with a few riffs before this turning point in my life.
I had a second present to open, it was The Yes Album, then I knew I had found the fantasy realm where wizards mastered musical instruments and communicated moods and ideas on a higher plane.
I wanted a part of this, I was a part of it. The Music was a part of me.
Then having older brothers to pre-discover music for me, I latched onto Emerson Lake and Palmer. The keyboard styles of Keith Emerson along with Rick Wakeman were my mentors and by some sort of listening osmosis I would bang around on a piano, imagining I was emulating some of this craft.
I longed for a synthesizer at 13, but only could afford a PAIA Gnome, which is a simple but noisy, synthesizer without a keyboard, It had a rhythm controller and I learned the basics of additive and subtractive synthesis while wearing out the ribbon controller that was used to modulate the sound.
Soon I met a guitar player in high school that was heavy into UFO and Michael Shencker. We immediately got along and started planning our own rock fantasy band, only it wasnt' a fantasy as we soon found a drummer, and I was happily assigned the bass guitar. We played the talent show at high school and lost, for the music they wanted was Disco, Yes the Saturday Night Fever was feverish at that moment.
I had completed three years of formal piano teaching, but the bass guitar was my staple.
Putting together bands, playing either originals or covers and life separating us, made it necessary to keep meeting new people and making new bands.
As the computing age was born, I was discovering music editors and loops on the file sharing sites. By 2006 I had produced my first album Grind and Polish, both from a midi controller and loops. I continued to purchase software and equipment as I could afford it, while continuing to create. The entire process has been an emotional roller coaster, with periods of joy and moments of pain and wanting to give up. And this is sometimes felt in the music.
But it is this dark, and sometime lightness in the music, the mysterious part that I continue to incorporate into my designs, along with the technical prowess of my music heroes that guided me.
The music I produce, is a process, transitory, with mood as a carrier and a subtle message, a type of communication that can only be achieved this way.
What do I expect? I expect to find a few people along the way that can identify with the music, and hopefully it will inspire them, I am not in it for the ego, nor the money, however I have set the structure up to accommodate both or either. I do appreciate you dropping by, hope you like what you hear, see and read, will share and consider purchasing so you can have a part of this which is your.
And I hope you journey back to see what changes as everything here is transient like the music itself.
Rybird

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Tribute to my cat Lemmy who was a special spirit and gift in my life but now has moved on. Here.

Tribute to Lemmy a special soul in my life.

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Dream City Mining Town

Above:  Mining Town 3d fantasy art from my other art site Dabble Bird  www.dabblebird.com 
Dabble Bird is artistic and creative oriented with 2d and 3d digital art and hands on fine art and sculptures. 

Below:  Spartan artwork by Rybird -
See more and visit Spartan - Pastels, sketches, acrylics, paintings, clay sculptures, and other amateur fine art by Rybird  at Dabble Bird

Below: ​Original Sunburst Acrylic painting on 5 by 6 foot cotton flannel cloth by Rybird. From the Spartan collection of amateur fine art. See more at Spartan here: http://www.dabblebird.com/spartan.html

Draco the Ice Dragon glass sculpture by Rybird. From the Spartan collection at Dabble Bird www.dabblebird.com

 Below: The Apple Dark sketch of applie in charcoal by Rybird. From the Spartan collection of amateur fine art. See more at Spartan here: http://www.dabblebird.com/spartan.html

The Apple Dark - Charcoal sketch of apple by Rybird

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