Brian H. Gill
 
Art Gallery
Posters and other art at Brian H. Gill's Shop on DeviantArt.com:

Sunset Halo

Island Flight

Vastness

- - - and more.

 

Brilliant, Talented, and
On Medication

My name's Brian H. Gill. I live in a small town in central Minnesota, a few hundred miles from the center of North America.


Life's a Bowl of Cherries, and Pits

Getting lost in the crowd hasn't been an option for me. I'm still not sure whether I stand out, or others steer clear of me, and that's another topic.

Several decades of undiagnosed major depression, and an autism spectrum disorder, kept my life interesting.

But my glitchy neurochemistry may be part of a tradeoff that gave me freakishly enhanced language skills, and a knack for seeing things differently: so I can't complain. Not reasonably.

Assorted prescribed medications, including a powerful antidepressant, make it possible for me to think without fighting the machinery these days. That's a wonderful change of pace.

I'm fascinated by three things; that which:
  • Exists within the universe
  • Exists beyond
  • Might exist

Art, a Numb Thumb, and the Lemming

I started getting serious about writing, art, and photography, in my teens.

Those skills helped me get a job in a publishing company's marketing department: where I developed carpal tunnel syndrome.

My hands and wrists have been fixed, so the pain is gone: but nerves serving my thumbs and first two fingers haven't regenerated completely.

That's an annoyance, since I discovered that having a numb thumb and fingers makes drawing accurately very difficult. I can still take snapshots, of course: but many of my subjects exist only in my mind.

Happily, there are a great many models and resources available for someone with a computer and imagination. That's why I take a virtual camera with me when I visit scenes I've made: hang out with the Lemming, a flannel-wearing alter ego; or visit one of the Lemming's acquaintances.

Now, The Usual Biographical Stuff

I was born in 1951, and eventually got undergraduate degrees in history and English: with art history, photography, library science, plus about two years of computer science, on the side.

I've been an English teacher, a beet chopper, radio disk jockey, sales clerk, researcher/writer, flower delivery guy, graphic designer, employment interviewer, and held quite a few other jobs.

Skills and experience acquired in an eclectic career help me imagine worlds that might exist: but don't. As far as we know.

My screen names have changed a bit over the years, going from Conan the Philosopher to Norski, and then Aluwir. Norski means "Norwegian," a tip of the hat to my Norwegian ancestors. We're the short, dark-haired Norskis, not the blond giants you read about.

The other half of me is mostly Irish, which shocked and dismayed one of my ancestors, and that's yet again another topic.

I suspect that the laid-back Irishman with his feet on my mind's controls often drives his no-nonsense, by-the-book Norwegian counterpart batty.

More about names:

There are many Norskis, happily, which is why I use Aluwir as my screen name these days; mostly on sites where screen names are the norm. It's a contraction of something in old Indo-European, and that's still another topic.

I talk — write, actually — more about myself in "About Me and This Blog ," in A Catholic Citizen in America. And that's another topic.
 
from the
Brian H. Gill Company