We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dustin Kochel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dustin below.

Dustin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I knew I wanted to pursue the creative path when I was in high school. Creating music and playing guitar was the most important thing in the world to me, and I felt it was my purpose to be creative. But I had to attend college of some kind, so I picked the Art Institute of Seattle. I figured if I can’t make it as a musician, at least I’ll have an adjacent career.

Well, in the early 2000s, this was a challenge. By the time I graduated audio school, the industry was incredibly hard to break into and I eventually just had to “find any job”. This led to years of doing audio on the side, while my energy for creative works was slowly drained by jobs that I hated and was not meant to be doing. This led to a long slide into serious mental health challenges, and by the time I was 37, serious intervention was needed.

Through recovery, I re-discovered that “me” who I lost back in those early years. I’m now 40, and attending art school once again, this time for Cinematography/Visual Art. I doubled down, and feel more confident of my creative future then at any point in my life thus far.

Dustin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Despite challenges breaking into music production, I still recorded and produced plenty of bands, including several of my own projects. This did give me valuable experience that I still use today in my video productions. I started getting into painting and visual art as well, which has further fueled my passion for visual storytelling. Through painting, I better understand composition and color theory. And audio is a huge part of video production. You can have the best images, but if the audio is bad, your story will have a tough time breaking through.

I am most proud of my struggle to be honest. Without all of the side-paths, missteps, and failures, I would not even be typing this right now. All of that part of my life has fused me into a powerful multi-skilled creative, who now sees creative expression an essential core part of being human. That’s to say, every single human being has vast creative potential.

If you would like to work with me, I will bring a lot of creative energy and ideas to your project, and help to make something really cool and special.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Art is essential to the human experience. It seems like our culture only values art as a commodity; something to be bought and sold. Further, this thing where only “super gifted”, “virtuosic” talents are celebrated and commodified is a problem. Everyone has artistic abilities, some just start out further along the spectrum. If I’ve learned anything through my pursuit of various art forms it is that natural talent makes up for only a small part of the equation. The bigger factors for success as a creative are putting in the work, and attaining the knowledge.

The best thing we could do as a society is to actually demonstrate that we value art and creative works. More grants and funding for creatives. More art and music in schools (not less, as seems to be the trend). More encouragement from parents and teachers to help those kids dream and achieve those dreams. More museums, concert spaces, festivals, swap meets, flea markets, school bands, murals, community concerts… support art and creativity by SUPPORTING it. Our institutions must invest in things that make life rich and meaningful, not on enriching individuals, and not on methods to control and destroy people.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I view NFTs as a symbol of the ultimate dumbing down and commodification of creative work. As a visual artist, I get hit up all the time by the bots or whatever. This behavior reeks of the same scamming and fraud that permeates our culture at this late-stage. So I avoid NFTs entirely, I don’t think about them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://djkochel.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinkart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560303034898
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinkochel/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DustinKochel/
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/summonthrull

Image Credits

All images taken and edited by me, Dustin Kochel.