We were lucky to catch up with Garrett DeVaughn recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Garrett thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

The short answer is “No”. The longer version is, that’s a difficult answer to come to and reconcile.

I’m 42 years old now, and I started seriously pursuing a career in art around 4 years ago. So, there’s the part of me that would argue I have lost time and wasted years meandering about in the more traditional work field. Unhappy and unfulfilled and waiting for some sort of reprieve, I might have save myself some suffering had I made the push to a creative career sooner.

However, the wiser and more faithful part of me knows that my unique brand/style of art came directly from those years of neglecting my dreams and being “careful”. I’m not saying that everyone should take that path, but for my specific experience, I am exactly where I believe I am supposed to be. At the risk of being a bit too poetic, I needed to be pushed to a darker place in order to see the keyhole of light at the other side of the cave where I believed there to be only dirt and bedrock.

Garrett, 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?

The short of it … I started learning piano while in elementary school. Started learning guitar around age 14, started writing original music as a Jr/Sr in high school.

Even though I didn’t start pursuing a career in art until 15-20 years later, playing music and writing was always in the peripheral for me. Then one day, I came across a “flying-v” soprano ukulele that I could not, Not buy. And thus began a love affair with the majestic 4-stringed monster.

Around 5 years ago, my wife and I had what my father would call “a come to Jesus” conversation. I was not happy at my job, and felt unfulfilled. Mind you, it was a job I had only held for around 6 months and the feeling was the same as my previous several jobs I had burned out on. This conversation led to me turning my focus fully to creating a career in art.

There has always been something energizing for me in creating music and art. I feel like I have a particular skill in stretching into the uncommon and unorthodox and the things considered abnormal, and not only stretching into it but, pulling some familiarity out of it. I find that as different as things seem on the outside, often there is more in common than imagined once you start looking around in there.

As far was my work and what I actually do…I am a performing artist. I play a blend of folk, alternative, prog, and metal on my trusty tenor ukulele. I play solo shows, and I have good friend that plays Djembe with me on shows. Slap some face paint on and a you’ve got the “Mad Uke-Bard” and the “Painted Gentleman”.

For my live shows, I really love to mix things up a bit. Whether it’s telling fantastical tales, or bringing different forms of art along for the set, I try to make each show unique. For example…I’ve had a belly/burlesque dancer accompany my set, I recently had the honor of a painter creating an original oil paint piece inspired by my set, and I’ve opened for a few heavy metal and hard rock acts as a solo acoustic act. Finding unique ways to collaborate with different artists is just the coolest friggin’ thing ever.

You can find my 1st EP, “Adam the Astronaut”, on all major streaming services, along with my youtube channel. I have vinyl of the EP for sale on my website. I’ve also got a Redbubble store with my artwork for purchase on quite an array of different items from shirts to coffee mugs and everything in between.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That my value and worth come from my accomplishments. I feel like a lesson that many people were taught growing up is that personal-value and personal-worth only go as far as your achievements and your capability. It’s a brutal concept and it can feel debilitating as you get older.

Having a physical limitation has made this a more unique lesson to unlearn. Growing up, I can remember feeling that I wasn’t contributing enough or doing enough to ask for help from others. I remember feeling like I was more of a burden than a resource. I don’t necessarily blame anyone person for that, I think it was is more of a cultural/social situation for me. Either way, it’s something I’m still un-learning.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, art at it’s core is more cathartic than anything, but being able to impact someone from the most pure form of myself is an amazing feeling. Being able to express myself in the weirdest (but most genuine) of ways, and in those odd spaces, having someone say that they understand what I’m saying and doing, and that it is helpful for them, is an indescribably humbling feeling.

In the more material side, seeing things build and meeting benchmarks I’ve set for my career is essential for building confidence in what I’m doing and building resilience in the face of adversity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.garrettdevaughnmusic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/garrettdevaughnmusic
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/garrettdevaughnmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/gfunk1980ful
• Other: Redbubble page for artwork and other merchandise – https://www.redbubble.com/people/garrettreuben/shop

Image Credits
1st Photo (performing live): taken by KVA Visual