Bio of an Artist?
I was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on August 18, 1980 to my parents Mark and Teresa Poehlman. The second of my siblings, I had an older sister Angela who helped to take care of me for the first two years of my life. In 1982, my brother Nicholas was born and, as is the case of younger children, he successfully managed to monopolize much of my parents free time. Once he was old enough, the three of us (he, my sister and myself) became largely self-reliant. My father worked in various manual labor jobs while my mother worked nights as an RN. As such, the five of us were rarely together for any length of time.
I couldn't say for sure just when I started drawing. By my best estimation, I have always been a scribbler, and my earliest artistic recollections are of freelance Conan comic books when I was six (which, of course, sucked). My parents, however, marvelled at the level of detail I always put into my pictures: the detail to eyes, the shape of faces, the overall proportion of figures, and the like. Encouraged by this, I kept on drawing, and it wasn't long before my work was also being praised in my elementary school art classes. As early as the first grade, I had a painting included in a student exhibit at the Kalamazoo Museum of Art. Come second grade, drawing had become my "thing," and I was frequently called upon for various projects requiring that "artistic" touch.
Around this time, a new level of tension entered my family. I learned that Angie was not my full-blood sister, and the conflict between her and my father escalated to the point where she moved in with my grandparents living in Niles, Michigan. The problems of my parents and my half-sister took a front seat while the lives of myself and my brother became back-burner topics. As long as we were doing fine, we were left to our own devices. I kept drawing pictures and comics, but the number of people seeing and commenting on them sharply decreased. My work became something I did for myself, and it was around this period that I discovered a deep-seeded passion for writing.
In 1992, my sister Morgyn was born, and shortly after my family moved to Schoolcraft, Michigan. In this new realm, I was an outsider, and no one failed to remind me of this at every juncture. Schoolcraft is a place of old families and old money, and newcomers are seldom readily accepted. Rather than try to win some acclaim by showing off my art skills, I kept mostly to myself and began to retreat into an inner world.
During my second year in Schoolcraft, I made friends with a young man named Michael Smith. Like myself, he enjoyed video games and art and writing. And like myself, his family was not the perfect portrait so many of our schoolyard chums touted for themselves. Mike and I shared our projects with one another, and after a short-lived rivalry we came to respect one another as artistic equals. It was also during this year that a new art style was brought to our attention; a style that would shape us from then on.
Following an almost accidental viewing of the show Sailor Moon, Mike and I found ourselves fascinated and trying vainly to copy the design of the characters. It was slow and discouraging work, but come graduation we felt that we had a fairly good handle on things. However, there were a great many things we did not have handles on. Our attempts to further our education and secure employment were lax, and the summer of 1998 ended in a series of crushing despairs. We were unable to find jobs or attend school, and both our lives were suddenly thrust into turmoil. Much as I could have used the support of my family in this time, I once more found myself in second place as my brother contracted a fatal case of leukemia. He lingered for five months before dying, and my entire family fell into a heavy depression.
The next four years were difficult ones for me. Rather than nurture my artist's side, I turned more and more frequently to writing, wherein I crafted a novel-length fanfiction based on Sailor Moon. This writing received little praise, however, and I came to believe that all my long years of creativity had come to naught. I abandoned much of my art and writing in favor of self-pity and television.
A sort of salvation did arrive, however, in early 2001 when I met a girl named Molly Fredrick. She was, to put it bluntly, the most beautiful creature I have seen walk this earth. We shared a deep caring for one another, and by her encouragement was my interest in creativity rekindled. She, too, was something of an artist, and we enjoyed our little conflicts of intellect until we were as close as two people can be without becoming lovers. Spurred on by this new and sudden rush of emotions, I began to draw and write again. I managed to finish my sword and sorcery novel Demonbane (as yet unpublished) and begin work on a new comic called Dumb Luck, which Mike and I had been developing since our high school graduation.
Since that time, a number of things have changed. The firstissue of Dumb Luck has been finished, but remains in its obscurity due to a lack of funds for distribution. My writing is still something of an idle fancy, although I have been pursuing publication lately (to no avail). Molly has gone to seek her fate and fortune elsewhere, but I take my strength now from those friends who would see me succeed. As it stands, I have no idea as to where destiny shall lead me, be it in art, writing, or some field or depth as yet unplumbed; but this site now stands as a testament to the work I have done in my later years. As of now (the last days of 2004) content is sparse, but it shall be added to in the weeks and months to follow. I am hoping that this next year will open up the horizons of my work, both in drawing and in writing.
Only time shall tell.