What Keeps You Alive?

What keeps you alive?

What Keeps You Alive?

    Not literally. Although, that is a fascinating question in its own respect. I meant, what keeps you wanting to wake up and tackle life every day? That’s a pretty daunting question, I know. Sometimes that answer changes; hell, I find it’s different almost every day! Allow me to get more specific because I find as I try to formulate my thoughts they come out too broad for proper introspection: 

What thought or feeling or daydream do you catch yourself repeatedly going back to throughout your day that provides that burst of life?

    Can you picture it? Can you see yourself basking in the sunlight, relaxing on the world’s most comfortable reclining lounge chair, habituating that perfect spot next to a crystal clear pool that’s dancing to the breeze, singing birds fill the air space above you, and your whole day is there for the taking? Can you see the progress you’re making on that piece of artwork that blows your breath away every single glance you steal; the one that you can’t wait to finish? Can you feel the controller in your hand of your favorite video game blasting in front you with your closest friends? Can you sense your heart beat increase when you think of the smile on your crush’s face knowing you’re the reason their smile is lighting up the world? Or maybe that alternate life you always wanted to live that’s capable between the pages of a captivating book?

    What is it that keeps you alive? Can you narrow it down to one thing? That’s not easy to do, even for me, I admit it. I’m not even sure it’s worth trying to narrow down since having multiple things that breathe life into your world is a glorious luxury not meant to be questioned. However, I do find it fascinating how often my thoughts sway to reoccurring daydreams that bring me out of a lull, that fill my desire tank with gasoline to ignite the fire of my passions, that make my face hurt from unexpected smiling, that cause my arms to twitch with energy. These dreams have a sense of power; a necessary power. They can keep the aches of sitting in a chair all day at bay, knowing the paycheck you earn is worth the vacation to Universal Studios for a handful of days where you’ll be staying in a resort and being treated like royalty. These thoughts and feelings and dreams taunt us like a donkey with a carrot in front of its face, but that can be a tool to push yourself even harder. I need my imagination to conjure glimpses of future realities because it becomes a goal worth the struggles. Having something to fight for and something to keep me alive is everything; and I remember times when there wasn’t a single thing I could find worthy enough to wake me up.

    Be wary o virtuous traveler! These thoughts, feelings, or daydreams can sap the life out of you just as the sun provides life, so does it melt the wings of Icarus with death. I suggest letting these things fuel your drive to work your ass off and make them a reality, but do not let the dreams of greener grass prevent you from loving every particle of your current situation. It is imperative, and I repeat, IT IS IMPERATIVE to not let moments like this take over your mindset and plague your current life. It is a quick and dangerous slope to loathing your current situation which will seep into your life path making it more and more difficult to get back to happy sunlight. By all means, bask in the future prospects and fight tooth and nail to get there, but lounge with balanced contentment where you are now. 

    So, what keeps you alive?

Good Ole H2O & Momentum

I've got my buddy, Slayton, singing in my earbuds and a quite refreshing glass of water to my right. So let's just jump right into it: I've been busy working on a podcast/show called Craft Conversations. My co-host, Brian Dales, and I drink some craft beer and just hold conversations with guests of all kinds; musicians, photographers, chefs, business owners, teachers, brewers, goofballs, etc. We've already released a Pilot/Intro episode and an episode with our first guest, Mike Karkut; the head chef and owner of Graze of Summerville. We just finished recording our latest show last night with guest, Dan Riley, who was amazing to have in the studio.  You can listen to our podcasts on iTunes Podcast, Soundcloud, and Podbean; you can watch those episodes on Youtube! Make sure to subscribe to get all the new episodes and catch us on Facebook and Instagram. 

Craft Conversations

It's been a lot of work to get this going but an equally exciting adventure! What's particularly exciting is that we're starting to hit a stride and getting into a flow, so the show is not only going to be easier but improve!

All that being said, I'm still offering Pet Portrait commissions! I have to have a hobby after all, and I enjoy providing such memento. 

And let's not forget about decorating your wall with the perfect spring time poster! Get an Art Nouveau painting of your favorite town or state, or a graphic poster to spruce up that space!

If you're interested in getting new and bold branding, then check out my Design page and lets talk about a better logo! 

Alright, back to editing! 

French Press & Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Clif Bar

I'm elbows deep into several projects these days! Which is a great thing. One of the best things for a mind, mine at least, is to stay busy with projects. (I suppose I know plenty of people that don't enjoy being busy and spend most of their time not doing anything, but where's the fun in that?) Not only is it important to me to have projects on my list but to have an array of projects to not get burnt out with one. That being said, I was stoked to get an acrylic commission causing me to get the biggest canvas I've painted on and to switch it up from my normal watercolor paintings. To take it a bit further, the style is not my norm either, where I'm working on portraits with pop art inspiration! This whole commission is a big challenge that I am eagerly working on. So obviously, I'm filming my process from sketch to base layers to full paint to special detailed work at the end. I'll post that video once completed, which hopefully will be by next week. 

I'm working on two watercolor commissions as well as the acrylic. Which allows me to switch back to a comfort area when the pop art piece is driving me insane ha! But keep an eye on my instagram to see regular updates on those. Have you ever heard of a Marabou Stork? Creepy looking stork that eats flamingos alive...that's one commission. haha! The other watercolor is a client's house based in California. Beautiful house that i get to decorate with lounging cats! 

Then there's the old digital paintings I'm trying to bring back to life with wheat paste and some paint. I honestly have no clue what I'm going to do with these paintings but I was tired of seeing this pictures collect dust. I needed a refreshment. 

And let me not forget my poor miata's clutch went to shit so I'm also in the process of replacing that.

All in all, I'm happily busy but will be quite excited to check some of them off my list as I know I'll have more projects to replace them! 

I hope everyone has a great week! 

Morning Thunder Tea & Artisan Toast with Jim's Jam

Does anyone remember when Goku was traveling to Namek and training up to 100x increased gravity to beat Frieza? 

It looks to be customary for me to pop in here and say "oh gee wow! i haven't posted in a while" which is terrible and yet still happening. I'm not going to pepper you with whispers of sweet nothings by telling you that i'm going to post on a more regular basis. I'll try but I won't guarantee that. Life happens too fast and before you we all know it, years have passed and beards have grown and wrinkles have appeared. However, such is the nature of the beast, life has been constantly and unfailingly moving forward and quite the changes are being put into place and it's all exciting but time consuming. I'm working on a stronger hold on my duties in the companies i'm working with. As a stronger foundation is made, more fun is to be had, so cheers to the future. 

What's going on with the website? Great question, me! 

As it turns out i'm using this website as the best representation of who I am! Since I am working on so many things at once, not all those things can be shared and not always on the same platforms or within the same accounts. This obviously makes it difficult to find everything I'm working on. So this is pretty much a website and blog of all the things that I'm working on... to be completely redundant.

You'll be able to see my watercolor paintings and the occasional acrylic. I'll be posting my design illustrations as well. SE-KYU Short Films is another project I'm working on that'll basically be any kind of content creation or fun video I feel like doing. Special effects and animations included. And I still love photography so that'll occasionally pop up. There's a lot of content that will be posted here and all of it varying around a central point: Art by Me. 

So enjoy all that I release and work on and send any suggestions or questions you may have!