Nearly in tears…
I haven’t been following my artistic soul very much lately and stepped up recently to make it a priority in my life. I created a new fabric collection and entered it for a design contest.
I received an outpouring of support from you, my friends, which touched me deeply.
I was working late last night to add an Art page to my new web site to showcase my new collections – which I intend to be creating many more! And I saw that I had 12 people favorite my design. That made me feel good that it spoke to people, especially since it was different from what the other people had designed for the contest.
This morning, I woke up to get my daily news from Spoonflower and realized something that brought me to tears… Two of the people who favorited my design are past contest winners and artists who I have researched as they have won multiple times.
While I was feeling a bit deflated that my design wouldn’t make the top ten finalist as it was more grown up or not as cute as others, two other artists I admire validated my design. It was exactly what I needed.
I don’t need to ‘win’ to be considered a good fabric designer. Just the act of creating and designing makes me a good artist. Taking that step, doing the action, BEing an artist is what its all about.
This fabric started out as a few sketches, inked, digitized and merged with watercolor paintings. Working on it has opened my eyes into the talent I have and how long I have let it lay dormant. And realizing how important my art is to me. I make my living off web and graphic design, but I forget where it all starts. Just me, paper and a pencil.