Was I born to be an artist? Possibly. I have always been passionate about creating and love exploring the unknown. Some people know very young what they want to be, but I wasn't one of them.
I think it's because the artist within me was silenced by the schooling system, where I've been taught to follow authority, take good notes, and repeat what I learned to the teacher—hardly an encouragement to be creative. Also, my drawing skills were not as good as some of the other kids at school, so I assumed I was not good enough to become an artist. My parents never pushed me to pursue any career, and my mom has always given me a choice to be who I wanted to be. The only thing she ever wanted for me was to be happy. I would often ask her what I should do, and her reply would be, it doesn't matter as long you are happy.
Fast forward to the year I got married and had a year off work. The sabbatical was not by choice but by the long delays in every part of the emigration process caused by the pandemic. During this time, I returned to painting. I learned to sew and make sourdough bread and tried little DIY projects from Pinterest. I made things just for the hell of it. I discovered just how much I enjoy working with my hands and that making things meditatively affects me. I became more self-aware and leaned into the things that made me happy. Creating art made me happy. Life always has a way of working itself out, and I believe everything happens for a reason, we meet people for a reason.
One day, I was searching for a hairstylist on Instagram (pandemic hair was not a good look), and I stumbled across a post: a call for artists to display their work at a local hair salon. I thought to myself, hm, I wonder if I could make some art to sell. I emailed Patricia ( the owner of Venue Salon), we met, and three months later, I installed ten artworks at the salon. I started an Instagram account and got creative. I will never forget how I felt when Patricia messaged me to say, "Please bring more art." WHAT? My art was selling! Whoa. It still feels like a dream.
Things escalated quickly from this point; people started to reach out on Instagram and wanted to buy my artwork. By the end of that year (2021), I had sold 20 plus pieces and had completed my first large commissioned artwork.
The End. No, scratch that.
This is just the beginning!
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Ciao for now,
