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# David Bowie's Hobby Journey

1947–2016

Rock icon, cultural shapeshifter, musician, actor, fashion pioneer

## Hobby Timeline

### Childhood

Saxophone (received at age 12)  Jazz (Charles Mingus)  Music with his brother

### Teens / Young Adult

Art school  Mime (trained under Lindsay Kemp — his primary income when music flopped)

### Career

Painting (neo-expressionist, post-modern)  Writing art criticism for Modern Painters magazine  Art collecting

### Later Life

Reading (published 100 favorite books list)  Traveling by ocean liner (afraid of flying)  Contemporary music discovery

## Surprising hobbies

- ✦  Was a professional mime artist before becoming a rock star

- ✦  Wrote art criticism for a serious art publication (Modern Painters)

- ✦  Afraid of flying — crossed the Atlantic on ocean liners

- ✦  His art collection sold for £32.9 million at auction after his death

## How hobbies shaped their career

Mime training gave him the theatrical physicality that defined his stage performances — Ziggy Stardust and all his personas. Painting was his creative problem-solving tool: 'If I had some creative obstacle in the music, I would often revert to drawing it out or painting it out.' Jazz saxophone at age 12 gave him the musical foundation for his genre-spanning career.

> “Painting was about problem solving. I'd find that if I had some creative obstacle in the music that I was working on, I would often revert to drawing it out or painting it out.”
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> — David Bowie

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> Source: https://significanthobbies.com/journeys/david-bowie