LoveJY

1. I have to be sensitive to, but not sensitive about client demands, especially if they are particularly difficult and unreasonable. Try to accomodate them as much as I can without taking their criticism personally.

2. Another way of thinking about careeer path, via Ricky’s friend’s:”My Dad just read me something from a book, that experts become so after 10,000 hours doing something. So your job is what you do, and more than likely, if you’re ever really good at anything, then its going to be your job. Your career. And so one of the questions I ask is, “What do i want to be good at?”

3. 欠: qian4, que1. To lack, to owe, to be deficient of.

4. There are such things as liquid dehumidifiers.

Something about that city really makes me want to go back. I think it’s partly because I feel like I didn’t get to see the whole thing (and even those parts that I saw, I would go see again!), and partly because I experienced an exceptional amount of tremendous family hospitality.

Anyway, I’m back in Shanghai now, and I’ve started my new part-time job! I’m working at Barefoot Portraits, doing client and production coordination, and soon to be working on some marketing plans. At first I was a little disappointed that I didn’t have a more photographer-centered position, but I’m pretty sure the time and energy spent on doing my job well now offer me more to learn from in terms of soft skills and business thinking. My first few days and already I have so much information in my head to be sorted and mastered.

I end my short post tonight with the philosophical question of the day:

Is it worth losing good things in life, in pursuit of other good things?

Ricky and I have been spending the last week in Kunming with his family, celebrating the Chinese New Year. It’s been enjoyable to say the least; I don’t think I’ll ever be able to adequately describe the experiences we’ve had these past few days. His family showed us around and we saw so many beautiful places, but the best part was listening to the histories and learning more about his grandparents and parents and aunts and uncles; and re-realizing that there is so much more that I want to learn.

That’s about all I have to say for now.

Since my last post was quite lengthy, I’m going to try to keep this half a bit shorter. Aside from all the relationship realities, I’ve also been thinking more seriously about pursuing art. It sounds so vague, and I myself don’t have a good idea of what exactly that means. I’ve always felt like I had no real passion for anything, but I’m slowly realizing that those little things I like to call hobbies may just be what I’m really passionate about. I’ve just never allowed myself to think that way, because I was raised to think that the only successful careers are the ones that make money, and artists don’t make any money, so you do the math. All this time, when I was wondering if I had any passions, I was really wondering if I had any passions that might promise to make money.

Anyway, Ricky and I met a new friend recently who lent us a book called The Artist’s Way:  A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. It starts off introducing a new philosophy of art and creativity, seeing it as coming from a higher source, and as we ourselves are only vessels through which this creativity can flow, we need to nurture our “Creative Child” to grow and improve. The most important thing it teaches though, is that we are our biggest blockers of creativity. We block ourselves by not believing that we have the potential to create something worth calling “art”, or that we’ll never make enough money to support ourselves, or that our family (i.e. Asian parents) will be disappointed. These are legitimate concerns, but those of us who really feel an unescapable link to artistic expression may use them as excuses, and we end up regretting having never tried to make anything of it.

An excerpt:

Remember that in order to recover as an artist, you must be willing to be a bad artist. Give yourself permission to be a beginner. By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one.

When I make this point in teaching, I am met by instant, defensive hostility: “But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano/act/paint/write a decent play?”

Yes… the same age you will be if you don’t.

That was the most compelling passage for me. I’m not going to throw away the idea of going to school to get a Masters of Marriage and Family Therapy, but I’m more excited than ever to really approach photography and handcrafts as more than just a hobby or “side thing”.

As for making money off of them, I think there’s a huge aspect of learning to be a good businessman and marketer for your own product. As much as you are an artist, if you want to make money off of what you do, you need to learn how to sell it. Like John Mayer. or Jay-Z. Anyway, before I get too off topic, I want to leave you with another excerpt for brain food:

Without specific tools and sufficient ego strengths, many gifted arists languish for years in the wake of such blows. Shamed at their supposed lack of talent, shamed by their “grandiose” dreams, the young artists may channel their gifts into commercial endeavors and then forget their dreams of doing more groundbreaking (and risky) work. They may work as editors instead of writers, film editors instead of film directors, commercial artists instead of fine artists, and get stuck within shouting distance of their dreams. Often audacity, not authentic talent, confers fame on an artist. The lack of audacity–pinched out by critical abuse or malnourished through neglect–may cripple many artists far superior to those we publicly acclaim.

Plan of action: I will start looking up various photo techniques and styles to improve my shooting and general exposure to the world behind a lens. Which reminds me of another great quote: “An artist is the sum of his experiences.” You can’t be inspired by what you don’t know.

Today’s theme: black-and-white

AND! I’ve opened up on Etsy! Not exactly how I’d imagined it, but alas, many a great start have had humble beginnings. So please support me by sharing with your friends! Tell them I make pretty earrings.

IMAX 3D. A-MAZING.

Definitely will be watching again. And again. And again. And again. Yea, you could say it’s a politically charged, modern Dances With Wolves, but c’mon. The most exciting and mindblowing 2 hours and 40 minutes that I’ve ever spent in a chair without getting up was, without a doubt, watching Avatar.