The Artist D Sounding Off — Express Yourself
The Artist D
The other night I went on a show called Cotolo Chronicles to discuss the upcoming Season 5 of my radio broadcast, The Fabulous D Show. Frank Cotolo is always such a lovely host and we eat up the two hours of live talk as if it were nothing. No matter how interesting the show it’s almost impossible to not be asked the same old questions. They’re standard and unavoidable because there is always someone new listening who has no clue who I am. Some of these questions really drudge up things inside of a person. If you need a comparison just think about how it feels when someone asks you your worst childhood memory. No matter how old you are now, you usually squirm. Same thing when someone asks an artist about something they did ten years ago. Oh, that blue wig? Mmm, right, the time I ran down a hallway on video, smacking my head into the door frame and then posting it on YouTube? Embarrassing artistic expressions but they still come up in conversation today.
When Frank asked me what advice I would give to a struggling artist to try to be as successful as I have become it really struck me. I was on Frank’s show back in the day when I was the struggling artist. Now they think I’m somebody? Could it be they finally think I am the transgendered artist radio superstar sounding off and changing minds? It’s possible and I’ve met a lot of people who think I’m somebody. More of the point is I’m being who I want to be and that’s what they’re really acknowledging — whether they know it or not.
Discussing my advice to people who are artists and want to “make it” I was tripped up for a second. It’s easy to tell someone all the ways they can get attention and publicity. We can all be networking gurus and crazed publicity whores, but then I wonder if people realize that is as far away from the point as possible. As I said on the show, once you try to get the spotlight you realize it’s a lot of work for something that usually turns out to not even be you. The key for me was giving up trying to get attention and just doing what I do for me. It’s terribly tacky and something people have been saying forever, yet so very true. You do what you want to do and if other people want to watch then let them watch!
Expressing Since 1997
The key to The Artist D’s success is that I’m The Artist D no matter if anyone is watching or not. I’d write this and put it on my blog if TGForum didn’t want it (if you didn’t want it). I’d broadcast my show every week even if I knew only three people were listening. Videos? I’d do those too, one hit or one hundred. The vision was real when I was a little boy performing alone in my bedroom pretending I was Madonna in front of a huge stadium. I guess some people are just good dreamers and a dream should be all we need to keep us going. It shouldn’t be the fanfare. Of course, a dream is usually all we do need. It’s what drives everyone to be anyone. More importantly it holds a lot of us together through all the crap that is heaped on top every day by every facet of society that should not be.
Express yourself and be yourself is the only answer. Is life worth living without loving, screaming and going wild in the ways you desire? We within the transgendered circle understand this more than most. There are too many people hiding under the wrong clothes or the wrong body hair. How many of the contributors of content across TG publications center around the topic of hiding, sneaking, skulking about trying desperately to escape from under stigma? Too many and it’s all in an effort to express ourselves. That may not be in day to day life, but it’s somewhere. It’s the night out every other week or going away on “business” to spend a week with the girls at The Keystone Conference.
We are free to be whoever we damn well choose and if you choose you can have the freedom you desire. It is harder said than done for many, but not impossible. If I am now seen as someone who has made it somewhere and done something of worth by expressing my true self then so be it. That’s fabulous and I can’t be more proud of the things I’ve done. Yet at the end of the day I’ve only been being me. As it really is the only way to respect ourselves. To express ourselves.
The Fabulous D Show returns to the air with Season 5 – April 15 2012 – broadcasting LIVE and around the globe on various stations. Stream it all from TheArtistD.com Sundays at 7 PM EST / 12 AM GMT starring The Artist D & Vanilla Child. It’s a fabulous revolution of graffiti, guns and gender!
Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender How To, Transgender Opinion
About the Author (Author Profile)
The Artist D is a true raconteur and provocateur! He has been performing online since the mid 1990s. A relic from the cam show age before MySpace was any space. Author of In Bed with Myself, an autobiographical tale of transgenderism and Internet celebrity. Executive Editor of Fourculture Magazine and host of the Kawfeehaus podcast.Subscribe
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I like the concept of “I’ve got to be me” and that may work if we realize the direction we need to take when we are young and before me make commitments to others. In a committed relationship it is important to keep the other person’s concerns in focus.
Pat