'“The path is not difficult. It is very simple. If you are simple, it’s very simple. If you are all wound up, the path is very, very winding. That’s all it is.” - @thepropgallery on Twitter.

I was called tf out by this quote. It’s been years since I started my journey of becoming a freelance artist. Since then, I have dropped out of art school, started and ended a gardening job, completed a horticulture apprentice course, and worked two seasons as a tree planter in the mountains of British Colombia. Though I have grown as a person, I have done pretty much anything than focus on my art ‘career’. But, throughout all of these events and experiences, I have had art quietly whispering '“don’t forget about me” in the back if my mind. I could never truly forget about my dreams of becoming an artist who’s work positively impacts a wide audience. I want my artwork to be enjoyed and remembered by people all around the world.

Art was something I didn’t question much throughout my life, it was one of the only constant things I could count on, when things in most other aspects of life became shaky and uncertain. I grew up in a small suburb an hour outside of Toronto, and was considered to be very ‘artsy’ amongst my peers. I don’t love the word ‘artsy’, but it captures the time period while I was in high school well. A time period when internet culture really stared taking shape, and you could see glimpses of it begin to blur with reality. After high school, I moved into a student co-op house in downtown Toronto, and attended post-secondary school at OCAD University.

This is about the time when I started to realize I wasn’t so ‘artsy’. No, not like the new people I met at OCAD. Those people were way cooler than I could ever be. This was a personal issue I hadn’t struggled with much before, I had always been very confident in my identity. This -along with some other major events that had previously happened in my life (that I will write about another time)- had me questioning myself more than ever. The constant partying, and lack of sleep, during the first few years of university really didn’t help get me to a more healthy place. But, I found my way out of Toronto in 2020 with the world-wide COVID 19 shutdowns. I moved back in with my parents, quit trying to become a professional artist, and applied for a job as a tree planter in BC. I know there is lots of holes in this story, but it’s not important for this article, and I will get to those stories later.

Now that you know just a small taste of where I came from, lets fast forward a few years, to the present. I have taken 2 years off of creating art full time, to do mostly outdoors work with plants, and I am just starting to get back into making art full time.

Now, the internet is full of amazing artists especially in the Web3 space, and it doesn’t bother me that I think some artists are more talented than I am, or more ‘artsy’ than me. I needed to step away from my passion to realize that I was so much more than just my one passion, I have multitudes to exist within. This might be the strength that will ultimately help me succeed with my art practice. It is unmeasurably important to have confidence in yourself as an artist, and as a leader. If you are wondering where to start, that might be the place.