I got reading through a few old blog posts tonight, and it was SO GOOD. In the beginning of this painting journey, I was lit up with all I was learning in class. This one's a gem; my first people painting, ha! Recently I've found myself getting intimidated by how other people perceive my paintings, and thinking about all the things I'm not doing right in my 'business' (or not doing at all). I also (childishly) look at mega-successful artist's work and hear a voice in my head saying, ' Oh, what's that? Yup, you should probably just put that brush down.'
Who knew? Turns out, comparing myself to others doesn't do a bit of good. Other than possibly keeping me from doing all I could do. If I wasn't so busy comparing.
The picture above is of a commission I did recently where I felt that same 'getting lost' in it I used to; I just. Love. Painting. It was so rewarding that they felt it truly captured the memory of the day, but I think I need to learn that if I paint hoping people will like it, I lose some of the magic that makes me love painting so much to begin with.
Self reminder: Love what you do more than you love people's praise; or you won't love what you do.
He's obsessed with elephants at the moment, and says "Elee! Elee!" whenever he sees one ( I have no idea where this came from). He's an avoid conversationalist (in Chinese, we think) and an incredible mimic; his repeat repertoire includes 'peace dude' with an attempt at a peace sign, which makes us laugh every time (thanks Tat!:). He turns anything and everything into a phone (his toy laptop was one recently; size is a non-issue), and gives the best, giggliest eskimo kisses on the planet.
Tonight he sat next to his big basket of books, taking each one out and carefully looking at every page; 30 minutes later, he looked up at me startled, and said, 'Oh!'. I'm pretty positive he was so lost in his reading, he forgot I was there! I just want to remember all these sweet things.
