Designing a Life of Design

 

Life, like design is a balancing act. 

The watercolor above is of a self portrait I've painted around 10 years ago. 

There is so much we have to juggle with on a daily basis.  

Sometimes it's hard to prioritize, keep everything together, and prevent the pile to crumble and make us fall. 

I've been painting since I was 6 years old. My upstairs neighbor was a an oil painter and he taught classes on our rooftop. I learned how to paint, before I learned how to write.  I would always write the letter "S" backwards ! The painting below was my very first one. 

I stopped painting on my teenage years and focused on music. 

I've been playing in bands since then. 

I got back into painting, when I moved to the US, 15 years ago. 

Since I couldn't afford actual art supplies, I would paint on cardboard or wood, with bad quality  brushes and paints. 

I realized afterwards, the importance of proper tools, but not having this as a resource also taught me how to make things work with what you have and to not make excuses.

Since then, art has been a fore-front passion.  

I took some more classes at ELAC and devoted countless hours on canvases.  

Learning is a never ending journey. When I look back to something I created years ago, sometimes it makes me cringe. But this only shows that I've gotten better from that point. 

I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had to work on murals and children's book illustrations. 

I like to work mostly with acrylic and oil and the themes I'm drawn to are mostly whimsical.  

I also keep a sketchbook, which I use in a cathartic way to express the stages in life I'm going through. 

I also enjoy sculpting, molding and casting and everything that involves creation. 

Asides from the random classes i've taken, I'm mostly self taught, but I do value the knowledge and discipline that is acquired in a classroom setting.  

When it comes to the digital world, I have long ways to go. 

I'm quite ignorant when it comes to vector based software, but I recognize its relevance. 

There's a lot of catching up for me to do.  

We are stepping into the world of AI and I aspire to have confidence on this as a tool. 

I've started taking elective classes at LATTC with the goal of completing Sign Graphics. 

Ive done some signs for businesses in the past and I've always been attracted to this craft. 

However, my main source of income comes from bartending, which involves late hours. 

Going to sleep at 4 or 5 am, and waking up at 6am to go to school every day is quite a challenge that I have been postponing for a decade.  Sleep is, after all, a human need.  I long for the day in which speed lightning human chargers,  replace sleep. We'll just have to figure what to do about dreams. I feel we need those too !

When it comes to blogs, my experience is also not quite there. I'm more attracted to tutorials on YouTube or the like, but I do recognize it's relevance. 

On my case, I believe I will be using it more as an archive for my learning journey.