I was another one of the kids who started drawing while little.
Note, for the sake of this story, it's important to know that I am a Christian. Telling people now so they can skip my story if that offends them, I won't hide or censor my beliefs.
Throughout my early twenties, around 2008-2011 I was developing what would become Dragon Sparking. Through some life situations, mainly having to do with where I worked, I encountered depression. This was in 2012-2015.
I became extremely disillusioned with my ideas, as I hit so many false starts. I eventually shelved DS and started to work on other art, while keeping DS in the back of my mind.
Work life and a long running addiction had essentially poisoned my drive to create, and I felt terrible constantly. Not to mention that I fell away from my faith.
At that time, the only thing that made me feel good was going to Metal shows. So in the summer of 2015, I attended a local metal festival called Serpent Stomp. I was able to see one of my favorite bands Living Sacrifice.
But that wasn't what helped me, no it was the event organizer, Jamie Kucinski. I had no idea who he was, but the festival that he put together was all Christian bands. Going to this concert lifted my spirits, Jamie said some words on stage, and I started on the path of kicking my addiction to the curb.
Fast forward to the winter of 2015, Jamie was hosting another big festival, called Not So Silent Night 4. This show was an outreach where all the tickets were simply a toy for a child who would otherwise not have something for Christmas.
At the end of the show, Jamie spoke again, thanking all of us for coming out, and that the tiniest actions we do can effect someone. By this time, I had rekindled my faith in Christ, and was doing really well against the addiction I had fought.
Jamie's words struck a chord in me to help out with the next year's Serpent Stomp. What did I have to offer? I'm an artist. I made a poster design for Serpent Stomp 2 and sent it to Jamie.
Up until that point, I had no positive things to say about my art. But even though I didn't believe in myself, I kept feeling God nudging me in that direction to send the art. When I did, I was so nervous. But Jamie, a person I'd only spoken to twice, responded quickly with "Nathan, I love this. How would you like to do more art for Serpent Stomp?"
And so, a relationship with this guy started. He's been a huge mentor to me, as well as a source of work for various projects, including his band.
Working with him, bolstered my confidence. Then, I realized in 2017 that I was gonna be thirty the next October. Dragon Sparking was the true reason I wanted to keep being an artist. Now I had some confidence.
So I started working on it with a new fire and drive. I busted my ass for a year, finally releasing the first episode of DS in August 2018. A comic I'd been developing for 10 years that I almost quit on.
That's about it. Yeah, my defining moment happened because I went to a metal concert.