I want to be an artist when I grow up. That’s what I have always wanted to be. I want to upload my creations to my little sites like Society6 and Pixel.com and my own website, and people can go on and buy my work as a tote bag or a throw pillow and then maybe at some point I will find my little art prints and mugs in a store like Anthropology.

As an artist, I like to follow other artists. Although I don’t know them personally, some of the artist I follow seem to be having huge success…at least on social media.

For the most part, the work of these artists is not epic or emotionally moving. They just happen to draw a cute picture of avocados at a time when everyone is loving avocados and then create it in a color palette that everyone seems to be loving at the moment. Is it luck?

Obviously, these artist are creative, have talent and skill and they have fabulously creative ideas. But, yes the rest of it is luck. However thanks to their success, many of them are at a point where they can draw just about anything they want and the luck keeps going. They’ve turned themselves into a brand and now they can just make squiggly lines on a page in the color palette that everybody’s vibing with and it is a sell out.

That’s what I want to be when I grow up…even just a little. So, I’ve been attending all these online workshops trying to figure out, even in some small way, how to be that artist and create that way. I don’t want to copy exactly what they do obviously, because I want to do things in my style. I am just interested in learning from their success.

So why am I telling you all of this?

Because I’ve been attending a workshop about identifying potential artistic, creative projects, passion projects to be exact. It’s about identifying ideas and creating work around things that you love, whether it has anything to do with art or not. I feel as if I have been working around things I love this whole time. I love flowers and I love photography and I have been combining those two things for years, but I’m going to try to take my work to a different level. I’m breaking away from photography, as you may be noticing. And, a few more changes are coming. I’m starting to update my website and have it not just focus on photography but other projects, passion projects, I am working on. As I gravitate towards new discoveries inspired by this workshop, my plan is to share my workshop progress with you.

I think the most interesting thing for me during this journey, is sitting down, asking yourself these silly questions and thinking about the answers to break out your creativity and discover what truly make you happy. Even if these things seem ridiculous, like you’re morning cup of coffee or for instance, I get very excited every time I find a frog in my pond. Frogs make me happy. They’re my spirit animal.

So I’m figuring out how to channel those things and I am so excited and looking forward to sharing it all with you.

Jessica

“I just want to create beautiful things, even if nobody cares.”