LoveJY

1. You can feed certain human medicines, both western and Chinese, to a kitten – like tylenol, de-wormer, and huang lian su.

2. It’s possible to be a succesful artist and own a thriving unique/cozy/ coffee shop, without having gone to school related to either.

3. As of tomorrow, “yellow mold season” in Shanghai will be over and although not as humid, it will start to be VERY HOT.

4. Cheesepuff is the best cat ever. He likes attention but isn’t clingy or naggy, he’s really clean, and he’s super quirky.

5. You can type “7456!” when chatting in Chinese to say “气死我了” about something annoying or frustrating  (lit. makes me angry to death!)

6. Most older people regret not traveling more while they were young.

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.