During my flu ‘break’ last week I came across a nice interview with Anthony Hopkins on daytime television. Normally I think they should just save the airwaves with most things found on daytime television, but that is another matter. Anyway, I had learned that Anthony Hopkins is also an avid painter. You can see some of his work here.  He of course sells them, offers for charity benefits, and not for out of this world prices either.  Perhaps this is old news and I am just behind the times because I don’t pay attention to a lot of celebrity news, but I thought it was neat to come across this alternative pursuit of an already famous person. I thought some of it was quite good, and he is already of course a talented actor.

In the past, I also learned that Andy Summers, of the rock group, The Police, and independent musician, is also an avid photographer. I think it is quite interesting to learn of these other artistic talents of artists that are more known for something completely different. Do you think their claim to fame helps or hinders their alternate pursuits? Certainly it must help for publicity purposes if their ‘hidden’ work has some commercial aspect to it. I remember seeing an interview with Andy where he talked about sometimes the two conflicted with each other in trying to ‘channel creativity.’ He would often need to put away photography to concentrate on his music.

Are there other well known artists that you know of with similar cases? I think I know a lot of photographers that dabble also in music in some way or another. What about perhaps someone who is known for a non-creative pusuit, but does something creative ‘on the side?’ All of this has me thinking about creative pursuits – can they play well together? Can one feed the other? Are there certain types of activities that could come in direct conflict with each other – where you wouldn’t find the same person doing both things? Like say perhaps a famous athlete that is also an artist? Just some interesting things to think about. If you have discovered someone’s ‘hidden’ talent, please share.