So along with sharing my ideas and projects with you, the reader (who’s not forced to read my stuff against his or her will…), I do want to share my life and its journeys. I hear blogging can be quite therapeutic so lets give it a shot. And what better place to start than the time when the Lord added a new path and talent in my life. ROLL THE TAPE!!
Back when I was a wee tot…
I’d say I’ve always had a story-teller trapped within me as I grew up. The ability to draw and sketch only increased it as I got better. When people ask me how did I learn to draw, I always say it’s like learning to play an instrument, it takes practice to perform it well. Which it really does. But I think strong imagination helps the process move a lot faster and that’s something I also practiced. As far back as I can remember, I had a designated tree in the yard I’d go to and pace around. It was known as (and still is..) ” the pacing tree”.. I know, right? But I would pace all around that tree, swing my arms back and forth and become lost in my imagination. I do admit that even today as I creep upon my 25th year of life, I still do this. But in all honesty, it helps me so much. There actually isn’t an idea I have had where I don’t do this. I love it even if it does make me look like some crackpot in my front yard, it’s my method and outlet to get away and pretend. Yet, little did I know there was another avenue for this.
Ughhhh, who cares about a stupid old tree, ya hippie!?
So all throughout high school I was the guy who could draw and I was labeled artistic and funny and yadda, yadda, yadda. I then graduated and went to OSU Newark for two years where I began to work on my degree in Illustration. I wanted to be a cartoonist since the day I could pick up a pencil. I wanted to bring so many characters trapped within my mind out into the real world so others could experience them and enjoy them as I did. But I always knew I didn’t want to stay at OSU and wanted to transfer somewhere, anywhere else. Praise be to God, I did. I transferred to Liberty University in 2012. Here’s why:
- It was a conservative/christian college that believed what I did and could help me grow with Christ.
- The campus was beautiful! Mountains and all!
- They told me they had a great animation program.
- Had a great animation program.
- Had an animation program.
- Animation Program.
- Animation…. They said they had animation.
You’re probably thinking the list above is a typo, it’s not. That’s suppose to be humor, because when I arrived to my first art class (42 minutes early I might add because I was so gosh darn excited) the professor had the class stand up, say our name, where we were from and what our degree was. It became my turn to go and I stood up so proud and said, “My name is Sam Van Fossen. I am from Columbus Ohio and I am here to study animation.”. Two students laughed (probably because I said it with goofy optimism) while the professor quickly jumped in, “No you’re not, because we don’t have an animation major here.”.
I stood there with what I can only assume was a blank face. I then laughed with everyone else as I sat back in my seat and the professor suggested I should go see my academic adviser, which I did right after. Alas, that didn’t quite help me either because my adviser then told me it wasn’t even a minor, it was a class. I left and went back to my dorm, called my parents I don’t know how many times, pleading that they take me out of the school immediately! I was so scared for my future. How could I go to a place that wasn’t going to teach me my dream of animation!? How to show people my imagination and tell them a unique story? I was devastated.
Awwww! Poor little art boy.
I was poor little art boy! I was ticked that this school had told me it had an animation program and had lied about it! Who wouldn’t be? I was mad at God for taking me to a place that I knew he wanted me to attend, but didn’t even have what I wanted to learn. All sorts of emotions raged within me. BUTTTT it just so happened I had decided to take another class that was out of the ordinary for me (kind of). On a last minute decision when signing up for classes that fall, I needed an extra elective class to fill up some hours. I signed up for Acting I and didn’t think a whole lot about it. Sure, I was (and am) a huge film buff and loved to geek out over that stuff and liked to make stupid little YouTube films with my friends (I’ve always been a ham), but never did I ever really try acting. I didn’t even pursue it in high school. I was the guy who could draw and had only ever done that. I did try taking a Theatre 101 class at OSU, but dropped out after the first day because the professor and students petrified me…
So the next day began and I started it discouraged and frustrated. I walked all the way across campus to the theatre department (because I was too scared to take the bus). I entered that theatre hallway as all sorts of commotion was ensuing. People were hugging one another, singing songs, piggy-backing, dancing around in trained choreography and I had no idea how to take it. I quickly walked into the studio classroom and sat down at the very end. Directly across the room from my row of chairs was this long mirror that covered the entire wall. I could see all the other students in the room through that mirror and everyone was doing the same. We all sat quiet, looking in the mirror or staring down, listening to the frivolity going on outside in the hallway. It’s funny to think as I write this memory out, I had no idea that some of those shy, quiet students sitting in that large room with me, would be people I would come to know and love dearly (As well as the crazy idiots making a ruckus out in the hallway).
The silence was then broken as the door leading from the offices opened and in entered a young, dashing, shaggy headed man, with a cocky smile. He nonchalantly strutted to the center of the room and stood, clipboard in hand, still sporting that cocky grin. I’ll be honest, I thought this was some senior student just walking in like he was all that. He then announced he was in fact our professor, which shocked me only because the last theatre professor I had (at OSU) looked like Nosferatu’s and Prince’s love child (Imagine that). But this professor, Andy Geffken, would soon introduce me to a whole different world of imagination and story telling. Him and the other creatively talented, hilarious, spiritual, and loving professors I would soon meet in the theatre department at Liberty University. They would open another path and God would soon confirm it in my heart that this was a direction He wanted to introduce to me.
Who cares!?
I only shared this part of my life (with more to share) because I like to lay out where I come from in order to put together where I am going. This is a very fond memory for me because it was the beginning of a chapter in my life. God showed me I could do more than just draw out my imagination, but I could even act it out. Now, I don’t share this to say I’m the next Meryl Streep or Anthony Hopkins. In all honesty, my goals aren’t set for Oscars or Tony’s. I want to live out my life doing what I love and using the talents that God gave me to do so. Acting became another tool I honed (And am certainly still honing) to tell a story. I’m excited to see where I go in my future with tools of drawing, acting, writing, and imagining. And I want you all to join me on this adventure.
Me, Andy Geffken, And Gordon Levanowicz at the 2013 theatre banquet.
The Curse of Imagination 