Expansion into Full Creative Expression
I'm more than just one type of artist. I create more than just watercolor paintings, digital illustrations, expressive figure drawings, immersive VR/AR exhibitions. The challenge I’ve had with all of these labels is that I truly don’t feel that any of them really encompass who I am as a full creative person.
Yes, I’m very well versed in creating art pieces with new technology.
I’m also very well versed in visual storytelling with one static 2D image.
The things that are less visible:
I love research. All of my pieces require a dedication to researching the topics - whether Klimt’s headspace when painting “The Kiss” or even the inner workings of my own emotional world. I read, I write, I find patterns, I bridge and connect dots with my multi-disciplined academia + life experiences.
I have so many spreadsheets and resource docs. I love working with qualitative and quantitative data as part of my research. Every project I work on has several reference folders of imagery, emotional keywords, user-journey sketches.
There’s often graphs, scribbles, and - oh god - so many post-its. I brainstorm and explore analoguely. The digital docs and spreadsheets organize my many floating thoughts into cohesive data and info.
I synthesize digitally. I then expand, refine, and clarify my vision and intent from there. I weave the story of the research and “data” from there.
I’m exceptional and creating and documenting new creation pipelines. I don’t know why I love this - but I really do like writing up workflows. (Just the first draft; not refining after HAHA - quite a distinction.)
Publishing is an integral part of my process. Pitch decks, documentation write-ups, posting online help organize my thoughts in a concise, digestible manner. It’s taken me a few years to understand that this part “completes” my creation cycle. It’s the putting it out there in the world part - where I can release it from my Self and give it to others.
It’s taken me many, many years to learn this about my own creativity.
Anyway! I’m at a point where:
I have my own dedicated art studio! 🥹
I am trying to live out that childhood dream of being a full-time artist (why do I not believe I have been for nearly tens years? LOL)
What does this mean as an adult?
What does it mean to have the privilege, ability, access, conviction + belief to be a full-time independent creator?
My health + wellness is the most important thing to maintain.
This means I need to have flexibility in my days and weeks to allow for harder days.
It means I need to give myself space and leniency to not kill myself over the hustle.
It means I allow myself — and CHOOSE — how I move forward with each day. And not feel guilty nor beat myself up for “not working hard enough.” Let’s glorify rest and wellness.
It means I’m creating the skeletal structure for the PUBLISHING phase of my creative works.
Because I create in so many mediums, where I share and post my work needs to have the flexibility and modularity to handle the variety of my works. Whether 2D illustration, 2.5D experiments, 3D immersive pieces, or even just exploring how my business is my new creative expression — my own website needs to be the hub for all things I create.
I’m working on diversifying my income to be more than just XR consulting + services.
I’m creating an online Shop
I’m making a lot of thoughtful choices of how I want to run my Shop, the type of business and collaborations I want to have with local Portland shops. I’m putting a lot of thought into finding ethically- and like-minded suppliers. On my mind: how I can support my local economy, how I can support BIPOC / women-owned / LGBTQ+ business, how I can make conscious decisions with my materials to do least harm to the Earth as possible. This isn’t perfect by any means - but I’m effin trying. (This is something I will share more on later.)
I’m starting with just a few basic products [minimum viable product] and learning about e-commerce, strategy, and scaling up progressively - slowly. Which matches my approach to life right now - slow and steady.
I’ve had the BIG projects under my belt. I have MEDIUM scale, consistent income on the side that pays my bills. The frontier I want to explore and expand is more affordable physical pieces during this economic downturn - to spread more joy and beauty through my art - while also trying eventual passive income streams.
I believe this structure I’m creating right now will allow me to plug-in and expand my creative experiments (e.g. AR postcards, multi-dimensional work, etc) into actual, physical products that can be bought in stores.
My vision is huge but I must do it in alignment with how I do life right now: slow, steady, intentional, step-by-step. Don’t rush it. Do it slow. Do it right. Less perfectionism, also. More to come!