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Kent Island Artist Hello, my name is Glenn Shiring, I am from Kent Island, I am a professional artist and musician. My family moved to Kent Island in 1978. I was 4 or 5 years old. The house is still ours. Now I'm 30. I've done a lot of travelling in these 30 years, but Kent Island and the rest of the Eastern Shore is my home, the place I will always come back to. It took going away to realize what I'd left behind. In October 2002, my father's life was taken in a violent work accident, leaving 3 children and wife behind. At the time, I'd been living and travelling throughout California, sleeping in my tent, in my truck, in motels, on couches, in trailers, and so on, as I'd been doing for quite some time. That journey took a major detour. I came home on a plane the day I heard the news, and decided to stay. I'd been gone from the Shore with hardly a visit for 7 or 8 years. But deep roots hold firmest. Much has changed here since the seventies and eighties, the years of my childhood. Much has stayed the same. The catfish still bite. The Chesapeake Bay is a magical body of water. There's just more traffic around it now. I've been a professional artist since 1998. I quit my dayjob in 2001, much to the dismay of many. I first picked up a guitar in 1994 or thereabouts, began playing live shows in 1999. I taught myself to draw and paint and photograph, I taught myself music. Now I teach others. |
I've always been drawn to the stage. I was a baseball player up through college and semi-pro, where I reached the limit of my abilities, so I changed the course of my dreams. It's basically all the same, to perform in front of the public whether in a stadium or a nightclub. When it's good it's exhilarating, but when it's bad, there's no one else to blame.
Professional art is a difficult way to go about things at
times, all the cliches are true
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