Take a Chance

Weddings are glamorous. Wedding photographers catch that glamour with their hands. But like everything else in life, with glamour comes the sacrifices. I came across a photographer's blog that shed some light on the reality in the life of a wedding photographer. She was bit by the "blues" bug. The "Seattle weather" bug. But when you're working for yourself, there's no calling in sick. There's no replacement for your only employee, you. Sometimes you just want to curl up into a ball in a sea of fleece blankets and do nothing else but hear yourself breathe. While the world is passing by you and the green summer leaves are fading into autumn orange. There are days when the frosting on cupcakes don't have the magical powers to make you do a happy dance. When you don't feel like humming along to your favorite song. Even the most optomistic have these days every so often. But it's the support we need on days like this, a few encouraging words from loved ones that get us swimming out of the sea of blankets and chasing after the stars.

Speaking of chasing your dreams, a blog post by Chase Jarvis intrigued me. Take a chance. How our society celebrates people that have taken non-traditional paths to pursue their dreams but doesn't encourage people to do so. I've experienced a situation similar to this in my past. I came out of my mom's womb with a painting I had done during the nine months I was waiting for my number (419-April 19) to be called. I won book illustration contests throughout grade school, once winning an autographed book by an author who now has her cartoons on Nickelodeon. I was hand-placed in an AP art class my senior year, the year I was to decide my route after high school. Though I'd taken art classes before, it was this class where I really found myself as an artist. I expressed my emotions and what I was going through at the time through my work and that enabled me to create the best work possible. I realized I liked creating abstract work because I like people to interpret what I do with their own perceptions so it's not set in stone. I like to captivate the viewer to stop and think rather than to glance and keep going. But one thing was always set in stone since my arrival from the womb days. I always knew that I was going to be an artist. Fashion, interior, graphic designer, animator, architect, I wasn't discriminating and had a passion for it all. My mother had other dreams for me. Typical parental ideal of her daughter going to medical school because "she would have a secure future." Forget that I had dreams, the talent, the heart.

Despite the lack of support, I scoured the countries best art schools. I was drowning in brochures and mailings from FIDM in LA to FIT in NY. I secretly flew out to visit an art school in San Francisco (don't worry I made sure to call once I arrived.) But I didn't have a spare arm and a leg to trade in for tuition. And all the artists out there know how many arms and legs I'm talking about. So I stayed and explored my paths in ways that I could here. Interior design, animation, graphic design, you name it. But I never strayed even at the hardest times. And I don't regret it one bit. Because at the time I wasn't sure exactly what type of design I wanted to focus on, taking my time to explore each option really helped me to learn what that was. My mother regrets now not sending me off to art school but I am content and am humbled by the path that I have taken and everything I learned on the way. And as I find myself in the world of design, I am feeling nostalgic like on the path I was in high school with my dreams ahead of me with this new love called photography.

 http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2010/09/take-a-chance/