What did you once love to do that you put aside as you advanced your career? Is retirement a second chance to pursue those dreams? Your interests and your talents may be different from my guest today, but his story may inspire you to reconnect with your earlier interests. My guest today is John P. Weiss. He's a fine artist, cartoonist, photographer and author of two books. A former police chief and 26 year law enforcement veteran, John retired early to pursue his creative life.

His Saturday Letter is something I look forward to reading every weekend.

John P. Weiss joins us from Nevada.

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Bio

John P. Weiss is a full-time artist, writer, and photographer. He paints tonalist landscapes, draws whimsical cartoons, writes poignant essays about life, and shoots artful, black & white photos. He is the author of "An Artful Life: Inspirational Stories and Essays for the Artist in Everyone" and "The Cartoon Art of John P. Weiss." Over 48K followers enjoy John's weekly essays.

John used to be a police chief  for the Scotts Valley Police Department in Northern California. He holds a master's degree in criminal justice administration and enjoyed a 26-year career in law enforcement, serving the last ten as chief of police. John retired early in order to pursue his creative life full-time.

In his police career, John served as a detective, sergeant, lieutenant, operations and services commander, composite sketch artist, hostage negotiator, impact weapons instructor, peer counselor, DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officer, training manager, police chief, and acting city manager. He is the recipient of the "Medal of Merit" for his work with children and related programs.

Cartoonist

During John’s police career, he moonlighted as an editorial cartoonist for several newspapers. His cartoons appear in various editions of Charles Brooks's Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year.

 For several years, John published articles and a popular comic strip, The Life of Art , on the art and marketing website Fine Art Views.

John hand draws his cartoons in pen, ink and watercolor. He also crafts cartoons digitally on his iPad Pro. Here’s a video of John sketching one of his cartoons. Influences include the cartoonists Pat Oliphant, Jeff MacNelly, Richard Thompson, Berke Breathed, Bill Watterson, and George Herriman.

Writer

During John's law enforcement career he frequently contributed articles to various newspapers and publications. A life long reader and writer, he started blogging and publishing work online in early 2014.

John studied writing and blogging with the author Jeff Goins in Franklin, Tennessee. John also hired copywriting expert Demian Farnworth to learn the art of writing compelling content.

John is a top writer on the website Medium and his work also appears on the following sites:

The Guardian, Medium.com, NBC News, Becoming Minimalist, Mr. Feelgood, The Unmistakable Creative, Austin Art Talk, Elephant Journal, Fine Art Views, Goins Writer, Good Men Project, Your Creative Push Podcast, Thrive Global, The Ladders, and more.

Photography

John enjoys shooting artful, monochromatic photographs with his Sony A6600 camera and Sigma prime lenses. He prefers the contrast, simplicity, and elegance of black and white film and photography. John sometimes enjoys creating post-production vintage effects in his photographs, to give them a timeless look.

Fine artist

John took vacations to study landscape painting with renowned artist Scott L. Christensen, among other artists. John supplemented his art education with museum visits, books, videos, regular practice, and experimentation.

John paints landscapes in various mediums, including oils, gouache, watercolor and pen & ink. He employs a limited palette and strives for painterly realism ...