Since March, we’ve collectively gone through some sort of…something. Whether we are living in Asia or the Americas, whether we are rich or poor, whether we own a business or are on a payroll – or did…or were.. As an immigrant artist who has lived a rather scrappy adult existence, I have engrained in me this philosophy: Use your current circumstance to pursue something new. To transform. Or, use it for your art. Use it to engage in life in a way that you couldn’t before (even if that means becoming – temporarily – a hermit and working on yourself). To relate to others in a new way (which can aid the collective, for example); and/or doing shadow work. Use it to get out of situation you did not like and to pursue something else. Use it as inspo for an art or blog project. Every single situation is content for some sort of new expression (OK; this is my inner artist speaking…but we did see a lot of fabulous creatives hosting fantastic Instagram lives for example! I got a lot of great knowledge from some of those!). You have a new fruit, even if it’s a fruit that tastes like crap, so you might as well squeeze whatever juice you can from it. That juice may be a slightly new perpective, or it can be trying out TikTok for the first time in which you ended up learning how to dance Dominican Street Bachata and discovering how fun editing short videos to catchy music can be. 😆 And then learning, OK actually TikTok is not for me; I need to re-focus on my work! 😆😅 (But I mean, if you’re curious.) Or, another silly personal example: Trying to make chocolate cake in a crockpot because you don’t have an oven, and then learning to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN. (I did learn how to make a bomb pad thai though! Do you want the recipe?) And for those with children…I can’t even… But hopefully there was a silver lining somewhere! /// OK, I’m starting to write gibberish..
For some, it meant getting on the phone or computer to catch up with long lost friends (or to attend/teach class 😩). For others, it meant learning how important immune health is, and thus finally cutting out all that garbage food they were eating and learning to cook at home. It may have meant learning time management and military-like structure (for you and your family) while stuck inside your home (and neo home-office 😅) where any sort of normal routine of life went out the window. What about that FOMO-free life though? 😜 The list goes on (feel free to comment yours below). It may sound wrong, but there is sometimes good that can come out of tragedy. I mean, if something bad happens, you might as well learn from it on some level. Or, at least, integrate some sort of positive change that you can make so that…when you look back on it…you can reflect and say to yourself “OK, that was a shit show that I hope to never re-live, but I’m so glad I did ____ or tried ____.” Or, “You know what, I learned this one thing.” Or, “OK, that was terrible, but I’m going to live my life like ___ now.” Those who have survived troubled childhoods may understand this more than most. I, for one, since the first week or the mayhem, knew that I could not let fear take over me. Not only is it a terrible way to live, it also lowers immunity. Stress creates cortisol — which causes all sorts of problems (feel free to Google it). This can mean to limit how many hours of fear-mongering news that you read per day, etc.. Having had a suuuuper stressful situation happen in my home the week before all this went down (we’re talking early March 2020), where I was so fraught with fear that it lead to an anxiety attack (which I never have), I knew I could not go back to that fearful mentality again, no matter what.
(Side note: I was fortunate to not have lost a loved one. This post is not referring to that sort of situation… Of course that is a whole other level of tragedy that I am not equipped to discuss. This is just a simple lifestyle blog by a non-medical professional. My deep condolences if you are experiencing anything severe like this.)
Alors les dessins :
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See more of my art (and close-ups of these drawings) via my art Instagram account.
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Just this past week, café terraces have re-opened in Paris and I, for the first time in 3 months, had the pleasure of meeting up with a girlfriend (and fellow painter!) this past Saturday. I know that restrictions are even looser in Grenoble than here in Paris. Our Grenoble apartment is finally at its latter stages of renovation, so I will be working on it (painting, decorating, furnishing) throughout the summer. I look forward to returning to Grenoble and seeing my friends there, and creating my new mini art studio with a view of the Chartreuse mountains. 🗻 To new and old followers of this blog; welcome and welcome back. Perhaps ’tis time for a renaissance.
Wow, congrats, you’ve made it THIS far down such a long-winded post! If you’re reading this, comment with one emoji that you feel best summarizes Year 2020 so far!
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