So enter fine art. This is something I never really thought about doing after college. I focused heavily on design, soon working HARD for a series of years putting in up to 60, 70, 80 hours a week churning out an immense body of work. Unsurprisingly, I hit a wall about 12 years in — completely exhausted in every way. And not only that, I was afraid that I was missing out on life’s joys beyond my computer screen — my marriage, family, friendships, the little things like growing a garden, picking flowers, etc. So I made a drastic, for me, change. Quit my full-time gig and became a freelancer. It felt like a massive step back in my career. The path to success had only looked like a certain thing to me for so long, following some sort of imaginary corporate stepping stone puzzle into bigger and better opportunities. The reality is that I never really stopped to ask myself what the specific steps were. I was just sort of riding the wave of “advancement,” whatever that was. So when I began to really assess, I realized that my priorities were based on made-up things, that success and joy in life is a daily choice to seek out, and set out to swing my life in a better direction. With a return to a balanced work-life diet of a normal work week with work-free weekends came space and time to be creative, get a little messy, and try some new things like painting. And thus, fine art became my gateway into a more balanced life. I still got a creative fix, but in a much more life-giving way.

Since then, I’ve been challenging myself to learn art techniques on my own through observation and patience rather than jumping right into classes or online tutorials. At the place I was in my career and creative journey where I struggled with perfectionism, super speedy executions, and the constant feeling of “success or my next big opportunity is just out of reach,” I needed to slow it down. Not aiming for fast achievements, but by learning to break through creative blocks by being quiet instead of frantically doing research and scrambling to put art together. I’ve been reading about other artists’ journeys (I especially love reading their published letters) and pondering how I might relate to their experience, and training my mind to be patient and become more aware of the way the world makes us feel as humans. Being quiet is hard but truly is a gift for a creative.

The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulate the creative mind.

-Albert Einstein

So what does all of this mean? It means that you, the onlooker, gets to explore this new direction with me — move slower, imagine joyful things, break down complexities into smaller, amazing moments, and explore new avenues of creativity — like a snapshot of a creative blossoming. My art is less about specific subjects and styles and more about the feeling and excitement of seeing something normal in a new light. My goal is for you, and myself, to feel something curious and wonderful when my art is engaged, that maybe it encourages us to slow down and wonder about how many colors, shapes, and dimensions it takes to make up reality.