Tag: art

  • Influential Sway

    There’ve been various times throughout life where I’ve either done things because other people were doing them, or decided not do do things I wanted to do because I didn’t see anybody else doing it, or somebody would say something to the tune of “that’s not how it goes”

    I went to college, because all my high school friends were. I transferred twice, was extremely close to dropping out. I’m glad I finished, yet I feel strongly the many wrongs in the system as whole. The fact of “grabbing” young students as they are getting out of high school is bothersome to me. $40,000 dollar loan and you know nothing about money? Here you go, buddy!

    There are upsides that have come from me attending college though, that I’m still discovering 8 years later.
    Alas, for the most part, we simply do what the people around us are doing. I think this is partially why I tend to spend more of my time alone. It’s so nice to get together with friends and catch up, hike, and get creative. But that isn’t always the reality. I know myself best when I’m by myself. I’m able to love myself most when by myself. I know my lane and I stick to it. I work on developing my creative career.

    Truth is, people can be influential with their words, especially on someone who is young and impressionable. It’s easy to take advice that tells you not to do something, ie. “play it safe”. Somebody once told me to quit photography. I forget the exact reason, but it just didn’t work out for him; he regrets failing. And he didn’t want me to fail. Yet quitting is failure. I’m a lifelong artist, and photography is just a piece of it. It’s a way of seeing and capturing the world that inspires me further. Why would I quit something that provides such joy and motivation to get out in the natural world?

    I also distinctly remember (~10 years ago) a fellow coworker saying “it’s weird to go out just to take photos”. And I believed him at the time. I was just getting into photography. I don’t recall how much it affected my motivation, but it clearly stuck with me. I’m just glad I didn’t abide by a sentence such as that, because half of the best experiences in my life have been driven by going out to take photos.

  • Continuation

    Over the past year I’ve come to an improved understanding of what it’s all really about. Not to say my way is better than any other, just one of several billion imperfect perceptions of life. All tuned to a different channel from the very beginning, we grow up and take it all in as it comes at us. Without realizing it, we form our own unique understandings of culture and society based on what is exposed to us day and and day out. Often with this, we don’t give ourselves the chance to take a step back and look at who we actually are and what how we see the world. Instead we often take it all as it is even though it isn’t any which way to begin with. Each individual is tuned to their own channel which presents their view of reality. As people spend sufficient time with another and share their experience, there is a give and take that ever so slightly tunes their channels to be more to comparable frequencies. Being the channels that we are, it’s challenging to look from the outside and see what exactly is making you what you are. As such, we don’t notice the opportunities that arise in order to shift gears in timely moments.

    Speaking of time, we are conditioned in such a way of being far too concerned about the future; events that haven’t happened yet. Within this, we’re displaced from our slivers of individual presence. A presence that all are granted with from the dawns of every equal existence. We become concerned with what society tells us we’re supposed to do, rather than the intrinsic gut feeling of what our experience is bringing us to do. Many being afraid to live life because what “would society think of me for pursuing this different path where in my conditioned minds view, society deems to be unacceptable. Our mind creates a story about us based on what we’ve seen, what we’ve done, and what’s happened to us. To separate oneself from that made up story is the beginning of certain freedom.

    There have been countless times where I believed there is a set way of life, where these underlying steps need to be followed. For example, upon leaving high school, I thought I was destined to work in a high rise office building in a city. This is what I saw in movies and that’s how What I perceived to be success. Yet, I also had this conflicting notion where I would never be well off in life considering that’s how I grew up as an impressionable child with parents and a family that was not well off. Point being, it can be extremely difficult to escape certain world views; as we grow into them for the first quarter century of life they become engrained into us. We come to believe they are us.

    So this past year I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to slow down, look inward, learn, unlearn, reconvene, etc. By no means has it being the greatest year of my life, but it has been different for better for for worse. To wrap this up, I’m better off knowing the highs only go so high and lows only so low. These moments of success and failure, love and hate, light and dark are a constant eternal flow. And for me, creating art is just that; an ongoing practice in creation. A creative output inherently based on an inner experience where I can feel progress being made. Knowing there is no grand finale atop this mountain is solace. There are always more mountains to climb with each their own obstacles to overcome.

    Within a society of others telling you they way it is, cut the cord and formulate a more open reality. A reality viewed from all angles where each individual path is acknowledged, for we all are a product of our circumstances.

    Life is a continuous path of progression and opening of one’s mind. All furthering ourselves with the importance in knowing there will always be further to go without any set destination. In knowing each individual is incomparable yet equally important from all points on the globe. The grandest understanding is that perceptions are collectively infinite. Each individual is part of the entirety and all stories matter, for all are uniquely intertwined in this vast spectrum we call society.

  • Dip into the Stars

    starlight-chronicles_grain

    I’m pretty satisfied with the way this digital graphic turned out. I just added the finishing touches today. I’ve noticed the past couple of months I’ve been making good personal strides as I go along this career path in art. I notice as I go along, I’ll take a variety of techniques learned over the years, more and more combining old and new aspects into single pieces of work… This is part of what makes every artist unique and their own. All subject to different experiences and represent those through our work. It’s what allows us to grow and further us along.
    Pull from your past as you push toward your future.
    When was much younger, I’d sometimes hear people say “art as a career is very difficult” or you hear about the “starving artist.” Words like this can be discouraging to adolescent ears… They may hear it, make a split judgement and throw out any ideas of pursuing their creativity altogether.
    I didn’t start taking art/design/photography seriously until I came back to VT ~2017. I grew a little bit in that time, and made a solid choice to pursue it and see what I could make of this path that I seemed to already be on. It’s something that made me happy, and there is an industry in it, so why not?
    Well I pushed myself and made many sacrifices that I felt would help to accelerate this pursuit. The past few years are currently a bit of a blur, basically I got a new roommate in summer of 2018. With him also becoming a more determined artist (specifically jewerly making, so we spent much of our daylight creating. We made an art studio in our living room and made a ton of progress together. He moved to California at the end of the fall, but I’ll always be extremely grateful for the ~18 months we had creating, growing, motivating, living, stressing and surviving.
    Screen Shot 2020-05-19 at 12.46.26 PM
    There are so many individual and one of a kind days in the year. All with their own feelings, tasks, and creations and concerns. There are also so many phases that we go through. Whether it’s mediums of art, people we spend time with and talk to, foods we eat, etc. Life is a series of waves that we ride. They come and go, though some go and are never seen again. We must accept that.
    To be honest, I haven’t really stopped since I started. I’ve become set on an intuition where I create a life I want to live; a life of progress, personal growth, and creation. Where I do what feels right, while maintaining a certain balance of creativity, introspection, socializing, and of course adventure. You can go as much into  your passions as you want, so long as you balance that out with an extent of relaxation, which can come in several forms and can be different for every individual. For example, you may have a passion that is trying on your mind, so to relax you would take a half hour to meditate, exercise, or both.
    With this non-stop lifestyle of course there have been strings of days where I wasn’t quite with it. I’d be discouraged,as I got caught up in frustrations of not making sufficient progress, attaining praise, or what have you (expectations on Instagram were also a factor). During these times I felt uninspired and slept a little too much and watched comedic of motivational YouTube videos from the comfort of my bed. It all helps get through the day. I learned a lot from the challenges, the shortcomings and achievements. There was certainly a long period of time where I took it all too seriously and just needed to give myself a break.
    When it came down to it, I was in one place, whereas I wanted to be in another (in a sense that I wanted to be further along in my career). I would actually even search Craigslist for new places to live, or new jobs to take on, in hindsight because I wished to escape the reality that I was in. The thing is, I wasn’t actually taking the physical steps needed to further myself. Sure I was taking tons of photos, having great outdoor adventures and creating based on those.  I was throwing my work out into the world in hopes that somebody important would catch it and offer me a grand opportunity. And sure it works this way sometimes. maybe .1% of the time, but with that small fraction, you REALLY have to stand out and create something remarkable. Let alone, the right person has to see it and the odds of this are extremely slim.
    So it seems this is what I was basing my success on; that and Instagram stats. Not. Good. I wasn’t definitely putting unnecessary pressure on myself, which is still bound to happen here and there.

    Another factor in the mix is coping mechanisms, like alcohol or marijuana. Sure these seem slightly harmless, especially used sparingly, but even for me just one 6 pack a week would get in the way of my goals. It begins with cracking open one beer toward the end of the day, by the last drop of this bottle, of course you want another. But also at this time is where you begin to lessen the ability to be productive. It also can affect the following day. The same with smoking, you gradually become more out of it; groggy but awake without progress being made.

    To sum it all up… During this time I worked to take life seriously in such a way that I had to be successful as soon as I could. I wasn’t being patient with myself, but I was also taking part in habits that were inhibiting me from progressing with my goals. It was a time of back and forth, leaving a few jobs to pursue art more seriously, inner turmoil of not being where I wanted to be.

    Screen Shot 2020-05-19 at 12.46.36 PM

    Today is drastically different from this period of my life. I’ve grown a lot as a person, arguably a lot even in the past 2 months. On February 3rd, I was really keen on making strides, progress and change. I wrote on a sticky note:

    NO WEED
    NO ALCOHOL AT HOME
    CLEAR MIND
    OFF COMPUTER: 9:30PM
    NO CAFFEINE PAST 1PM
    GRATITUDE TODAY
    GRATIFICATION LATER

    The note is still there stuck to my Mac, so I see it everyday. Since I wrote the note, I cut those out completely for 6 weeks. I did some beer product photography so I allowed myself to taste some of the brews. I’ve also had a hard cider here and there (3 total), but since not been buzzed or drunk. I have also smoked a few times, but ultimately this was a decision day. The decision to take accountability for my daily actions for the greater good of my future self. Also, with a shoulder injury that I sustained in November, I begin each day with movement/yoga/mindfulness. I take healthy breaks from my work to decompress, have a nice meal, relax my mind. I am excited to use summer bike rides in this way… A healthy escape that’s good for my well-being.

    Lately I am taking it all one day at a time. It’s ultimately most important to live in the present moment and not succumb to unrealistic expectations. Voice your goals to people in your life, as they may have a good suggestion of what you can do to get there. Make a to-do list every night so you’re ready to go the next morning. Create what you like to create, and don’t focus on whether it’s good enough or if people react to it. Some you create will strike invidividuals for a moment and other for a period of time. Don’t dwell, just move and keep creating.

    Screen Shot 2020-05-19 at 12.47.01 PM

    Keep creating. Consider what you can do better for next time. Don’t be too hard on yourself. If you’re drawn toward something or have an idea on how to “connect the dots,” pursue it. Try it out and release any expectation of an outcome. You may see surprisingly good outcomes that will propel you toward where you wish to be. Only by taking action can you see what happens.

    And with that, it’s good to have goals to guide you, but remain patient and open among all of this, because you will change, you will make realizations. As you keep going, you will direct yourself, and your projects will direct you. Hold onto your goals and ideals, but don’t skip ahead as they are simply a guide, not a point in time.

    There is no time; there’s only you, what you do…how you feel…how you feel unto others.

    Feel it out, reel it in. It’s only real, if you begin.

    You’ll never get there, for so long as you keep going, you’re already there.


    If you read this, please let me know in any which way! I appreciate feedback of any kind. Thanks!

    -Aryk

    <div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/designframeofmind/posts/1922873231191070" data-show-text="true" data-width=""><blockquote cite="https://developers.facebook.com/designframeofmind/posts/1922873231191070" class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><p>After making a digital illustration in Adobe Illustrator, I find that adding a little extra style in Photoshop makes all...</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/designframeofmind/">DFOM</a> on&nbsp;<a href="https://developers.facebook.com/designframeofmind/posts/1922873231191070">Tuesday, May 19, 2020</a></blockquote></div>