4:30

Music by Artist Charles Maring

This is a song for all the artists out there, and certainly for all those who appreciate and understand all the effort it takes to survive, much less succeed. “4:30 Wake up crawl, and then I go out to the shed. Pick up a canvas and mix those paints there with my hands. Draw the lines and curves, and then I paint her body red. I’m alone with just my thoughts, a lover lying back in bed….” The memories are so vivid. This little ditty with a rock’n roll attitude paints a storytelling picture of a moment in time in my own personal life.

I wrote this from my Connecticut art studio which was set out in this beautiful country setting. I used to walk out into the cold dead of night, sometimes through feet of snow, down the driveway to a garage that I reinvented into my own little creative corner of the world where I’d paint util the sun came up. I’d turn up the music, and pull inspiration from within turning gigantic canvases into mesmerizing abstract paintings. “My hands are dirty, the paint fumes cloud up my brain… I kindly give my heart before I proudly sign my name… A little older now but I get better yeah with age… I’d never sell out no why would I give it all away…” Much like the way I paint, I looked inward for the lyrics. The two world’s collided, music and art that is, and words flowed out onto the page in a random but beautiful order that I rearranged numerous times until persistence prevailed. Persistence… It is everything in art and music! Without it nothing gets completed much less ever gets seen or heard.

Ultimately this is a song of gratitude because I know how lucky I am to have found a way to make it in the arts. Make no mistake about it though the struggle in this song is real. Believing in the work you do, and in the value of your work, takes a backbone and it takes faith. Putting yourself out there non-stop for all the critics of the world takes commitment and guts. Overall, being an artist takes grit. Yet grit, or maybe it’s the ability to feel deeply, is greatest part of being an artist.

Today I’m currently working from Savannah, Georgia where I live now creating from a skyline loft overlooking this charming little city. I was doing this long before I every made any money at it, and I suppose I’ll be doing it to the very end. I’m serious about my work, and even with all the challenges I face each day I wouldn’t have it any other way.. “It’s an artist life I lead yeah for me it’s not a game.

Special thanks to Dirt Floor where I recorded this song with the incredibly talented Eric Michael Lichter.