Introduction
The following is based off the text of my 3–5 minute ice breaker speech given to the Toastmasters club which I joined in March 2016. Some minor additions have been made to update it a bit.
Toastmasters Introductory Speech
Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, honored guests, my name is Michael Goltz. I am an artist and photographer, have a BA in 20th C German History and came just short of completing a BA in Philosophy. I read and speak German and have cocker spaniels.
If you were to ask me to describe myself, I would tell you that I am a spiritual, nebulous, creative enigma. What you might ask is a spiritual, nebulous, creative enigma? Let me define this for you.
First and foremost, I am spiritual. My relationship with God and the world in general is of the utmost importance to me and fuels everything that I do. I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian, but have also found in conversations with a Native American Shaman that we have many beliefs in common. My love of dogs also nearly touches a spiritual level. There was one time while doing pet photography that a policeman with his K9 came to chat with me while taking a break from my work. Being a dog lover I wanted to pet the K9 but the officer warned me not to since the dog was on duty. At this point the K9 sniffed me up and turned his back to me and sat at attention. The officer said to me, sir, I do not know who you are, but my K9 just told me he trusts you. You can pet him all that you want.
I am nebulous. My interests lay in many areas including Byzantine Iconography, Impressionist and Expressionist Art, Photography, dogs, craft beer, fine cigars, travel, and my obsession with photographing beautiful women. There are many people who know me by one or two of my various characteristics and interests, but few know me by all of them.
I am an enigma. To people who do not know me well, there are seeming inconsistencies in my interests and being. For example, when it comes to Byzantine Iconography, there are some aspects of iconography in which I am an absolute purist and insist on icons being painted according to the several thousand year old traditions which guide the art form. However, at the same time, I am very modern in the technique and materials which I use to paint icons. Having studied the subject for 20 years, I am also not afraid to tell someone when they are flat out wrong in their views of iconography, based on my extensive experience both painting icons and teaching others to paint icons.
I am creative. I have a personality type known as a Highly Sensitive Personality, or HSP. Being HSP causes me to notice, hear, sense and feel everything around me, and this at times is overwhelming to my mind and senses. However, this HSP is the very thing that fuels my creativity and being an artist. My creativity is who I am. Some people bleed coffee, some people bleed tea, but I bleed art. I treat manual photography as a serious expression of my artistic and creative self and have been known to go to great lengths in order to capture a perfect photograph. I love to photograph portraiture, events, children and dogs. I even photograph the kittens that I occasionally find on my porch while I am giving them a bath before finding them a new home. One of my absolute favorite things to photograph is the sunrise over the beach. Because I do photography manually, I can shoot the sunrise for 2 hours or more on a beautiful day. To me seeing the sunrise over a beach is spiritually energizing. My creativity touches almost everything that I do, including the way that I bake brownies and cook.
Often times the people and places that I meet in my travels influence my art and creativity. It was during my year of study in Roman Catholic seminary that I met the man who taught me iconography, and this very meeting influenced my life and art permanently. I once drove 10 hours round trip to have a 20 minute experience praying before my favorite icon. My 2 favorite places in the world are Germany and being on the beach at sunrise. I have been to Germany three times and plan to return this summer. It should not surprise you to know that my bachelors thesis in German History was written on research that I did on German Art Nouveau while spending a month in Darmstadt, Germany. The two people who have the most influence on my art currently are my friend Nick, an iconographer, and Rhoda who is a very productive artist.
My goals in life are influenced by my various interests. I plan to write a book on Iconography comparing it with the work of Norman Rockwell and NDSAP propaganda art; discussing how each art form speaks the same language but has a totally different outcome in mind. I want to travel the world extensively, photographing it and selling my travel photography. I love to share my creativity with others and plan to continue this all that I can, whether it be teaching another student iconography, finding a young budding photographer who I can help learn to love that art form, or even just sharing my latest batch of custom made brownies with a friend. One of the greatest joys I ever had was teaching a student to paint icons. It brought me great joy several weeks ago to donate a stack of drawing pads to a group of elementary school students who were involved in an after-school arts program.
These thoughts that I have shared with you are but a glimpse into the spiritual, nebulous, creative enigma that is Michael Goltz.
