Got Juice? Creative Juice?

I was reading Tobie Abad’s blog yesterday and news of his departure from ABS-CBN to pursue more “creative” endeavors has got me thinking.

What have I done “creatively” in the past years aside from work-related stuff? Virtually nothing … except if you count blogging “creative”.

Ever since graduating from college close to ten years ago, I’ve been stuck in the vicious cycle of corporate life. Whatever time I have left from the conundrum of the office I spend on personal pursuits that nourish my sanity, my soul and my spirit – family, friends, in most recent years, my wife, and in the coming months, our little daughter.

So, Tobie got me thinking, have I been nourishing myself creatively? The answer – no.

In my younger years, I used to draw a lot. I spent summer breaks working on self-made superhero comics, using simple bond paper and a black Pilot pen to write, draw and fabricate stories about my own superheroes. The last comic book I made was in 1990 when I was in high school -- a futuristic band of superhero not unlike DC's Legion of Superheroes. In even younger years, I wrote some poetry about love and life. I composed songs. I even tried my hand in the fine arts – oil painting and craypas drawing. I used to create made-up worlds for Dungeons & Dragons campaigns that I plan to use in games with friends. I wrote plots and synopsis for comics I planned to write and draw. I used to have a Who’s Who of my own superheroes drawn and written on loose leaves of a spiral notebook.

In college, despite being classified as schoolwork, I wrote some fiction, the last being a children’s sci-fi story for Ma’m Issy Reyes’s Writing for Children class. I also did some fiction for a Butch Dalisay class and several pieces for Writing for Comics class conducted by Paolo Manalo. Being in a rock band aptly named Hampas Dugo (literally Strike Blood, inferring to a local Holy Week custom of self-flagellation) also allowed me to channel my creative energies into songwriting which I later on belt (or shout) out onstage to an often but not always appreciative crowd. The band and I even managed to score two gigs at the now defunct but extremely popular Club Dredd alongside Fatal Posporos, Agnus Dei, Tungaw and Parokya ni Edgar who were then just in the infant stages of their musical notoriety. In my personal time, I composed more personal songs about love, school, and more love.

I did a lot of creative stuff then that nourished my creative hunger.

But the reality of the working life changed all that …

With my recent penchant to read the blogs of artists, writers, comic-book creators (Dean and Nikki Alfar, Butch Dalisay, Jonas Diego, Tobie Abad, Gerry Alanguilan, etc.) the creative hunger is growing but I am unable to satisfy it yet.

There’s just a lot of work to do. Being stuck in a 9-6 job only aggravates the hunger.

Sigh …