PATRON SPOTLIGHT: The Rambling Bard (Patreon)

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For this month's Patron spotlight, please give a warm welcome to The Rambling Bard!

Based in central Oklahoma, Gregory dabbles in everything from music to woodworking to voice acting and beyond. He's been a natural performer since childhood, but he got started performing professionally at renaissance festivals. (In fact, he and I met at Scarborough Faire way back in 2010!)

"My first experience with the word bard was before Shakespeare," Gregory admitted. He described a character named Edward from Final Fantasy II as his initial inspiration: "The thing that I thought was really cool is that he used music, which I've loved my entire life, as a weapon — as magic. His ability to do that is part of what saves the world."

While it was music that drew him to the word "bard" initially, it was the concept of a bard as a jack of all trades that really called to Gregory, who has always wanted to do a little bit of everything. "I've always hungered to do something new and different," he said. "I can think of no better title, no better job description than 'bard.'"

If you follow The Rambling Bard on social media, you'll find open discussion of Gregory's newfound gender fluidity, impassioned statements on the current political climate, and thoughtful takes on society and cultural norms. I asked Gregory about his choice to not separate his art from his politics.

"I can't separate what I feel intrinsically at my core from what I create intrinsically from my core," he answered, "and I don't think most artists can. To purposefully shield your morals from the expressions of your soul I find morally reprehensible."

Watch "The Journal Rudolf of VanRichten" on YouTube here. 

When I asked Gregory to show me some of his creations that he's most proud of, he named the two videos and the drawing featured in this interview. The art features the main character in a book series he's been working on for fourteen years, and his voice acting work on video recently earned him his first paid voice acting gig.

"I'm just really proud of them existing," he said, getting audibly choked up. "Sorry, I hadn't really thought about that in depth until just now." 

Follow The Rambling Bard on Twitter!