Yes, I am an artist. I don't refer to myself as an artiste, however; I think they're the ones who wear berets and consider their works to be too good for the common man. ;) I don't refer to myself as a GREAT artist, either, but I have produced a few things I'm very proud of and happy with.
I also don't claim to have any graphic art abilities. I take the occasional great photograph, and I've done some interesting manipulations with Photoshop, but I generally can't create any decent graphic art with either my hands or the computer. That hasn't stopped me from trying, though, and you can see some of the results here. Back in the days of the Underground Giraffe, I decided to create a character or mascot to represent my alter ego, my 'dark side.' As I couldn't draw, however, the result, Skinny the Foo, was a stick figure with no limbs, a lollipop with sharp, angry eyebrows. Skinny has outlived both the newsmagazine and my most angst-filled days, and you can see him on this Web site today, if you've got nerves of steel.
Later, for the Extreme, I tried my hand at a comic strip of my own, to be called Wombatman. An introductory frame appeared in the very limited (very limited!) compilation 'zine Just About 10 PM Somewhere In Chicago in 1995, but my own publication fizzled out before I got a chance to draw up any subsequent strips. I drew up a second frame in 2000 for this Web site, but have yet to follow up with a full strip. Heh-heh. It'll come, I promise! In early 2000, I also drew a quick sketch of a character I often voice, Chicken Fingers.
Where I did (and still do) do well as an artist is in the literary field. I started writing some science fiction back when I was maybe 13. I always enjoyed my English classes, especially when I got the chance to do some creative writing. In the latter half of my high school years, I switched to journalism, and so worked on (and wrote for) the school newspaper and our senior yearbook. Around this time, I also began trying my hand at poetry and the occasional essay alongside the occasional short story. As the propagandist and literary editor of the Underground Giraffe, I humorously attacked my employers and titillated my fellow employees. The Extreme was more literary in nature, and I used it as a forum for some of my own writing, though I published much more work by others. My brief stint at playing Warhol... I brought back Vitriol, the column I sometimes wrote for my 'zine, in a monthly online format for a time. I've been writing songs and the occasional poem with increasing frequency since 1999. And there's a story that was inspired by a tequila-drenched nightmare I had in Cancún that I just have to finish, in all its bone-crunching sterility... someday.
Music is another field in which I dabble. I play guitar, bass, and keyboards, program drum tracks via software, and attempt to sing as well. ;) More importantly than just playing music, though, is writing it. It takes talent to play an instrument; it takes creativity and art to come up with your own compositions. I'm hardly the next Beethoven, but I think I've come up with a few good songs, and I plan to try to come up with more, and to record 'em all.
The World Wide Web is a new medium for a new breed of artist, in my opinion. I am an artist in this medium as well, and as with the others, I've basically taught myself and learned as I've gone. This site is so much bigger, so much more, than it was in 1998, and it's constantly growing and evolving. I intend to take it to new places in the future, and to make it a work of art, as much as a site about me can be, anyway. ;) Steve Augulis, my former Underground Giraffe cohort, and I put together Foogar.com, too, though it's on life support these days.
I came up with a theory a few years ago, one I still consider valid: an artist, regardless of his medium, walks a tightrope, on one side of which is sanity, on the other insanity. He can't stay balanced exactly all the time, and therefore sways a little one way, then a little the other, constantly. The further he slips into insanity, the more inspired and ingenious his art. But at some point, he's going to fall off the tightrope and onto one side permanently, if he lives long enough...
I'll leave you to ponder that.