22nd March, 2020
Host, David Sretenovic, welcomes his friend, Keelan Parker – a man who occupies vast, fascinating realms, including digital graphic design, video gaming, character illustration and fantasy narrative development. These in addition to the deep-end: being a husband and father of three littlies! The conversation covers these topics and also has Keelan connect his early life with the transitions to family and professional life. Showing his philosophical qualities, moreover, Keelan tells of his path of maturity and growth, and shares his walk on a tightrope between deep religious conviction and doubt. There's a great story about one of his musical heroes too: the enigmatic and talented, Dustin Kensrue, of Thrice.
 
Time stamps:
4:30 – Keelan on his early life; illustration based work, character design, layout and logo creation
10:05 – University life: adult decisions and being a provider for a family
23:30 –  God's presence via Keelan's early family life, his believing wife, Rebekah; Keelan's unique sense of wavering agnosticism and faith from his university days to now:

• "...if you were to ask my wife I think she would tell you that ...was all pre-ordained (God kind of stuff)...some days I agree with her!"
• "...it's comforting...and sometimes that's exactly what you need...even when you don't fully want to buy-in to it...having it there and being reminded that it's there can go a long way
• "I can't stomach people talking bad about the faith, the beliefs...the heretical comments that people might make... The idea of having faith in something beyond what you can see and touch and smell... It's always just been this thing that's there...that sort of comfort in your life that there's something out there, and sort-of being humble to that is...to me that's a very brave thing to give yourself to."

30:42 –Why it's brave to be a person of faith in the 21st century; Keelan's admiration for those who hold to their creed without wavering
39:00 – Music and Keelan's deep engagement with it; on sharing lyrics on Facebook:

• "Sometimes you just have something in your head and it's not enough to just have it in your head, you need to put it onto other people's minds as well"
• "...I got very very interested in learning the inner workings of things that I was interested in. You could put that down to my over-analytical state of mind and overthinking things a lot...with music, I did the same thing.

45:31 – On Dustin Kensrue:

• "It's a weird thing to become so interested in another person's creative work that you stop liking them and start admiring them and respecting them as an individual.

50:40 – Gaming as a semi-professional pursuit in Keelan's life; putting up boundaries

• "Obviously, time spent with [wife, Rebekah] is more important than time spent shooting people in Call of Duty."

55:15 – on creative design and cartooning:

• "For a very long time now I've been drawing a character called Takoshi and then I went and named my third child that.”

Credits and licencing
MUSIC LICENSE CERTIFICATE : Sunbird-Audio; Soulful Drive; Item URL: https://audiojungle.net/item/soulful-drive/7966390; Item ID: 7966390.