On sale Fairy

General Description
- 16x20 on sale inch acrylic on canvas painting
- edges have been painted, so it does not require a frame

My Story

Off in the distance is a beautiful still pond. The pond appears calm and picturesque, the epitome of serenity. As you draw closer, you notice a smell, a smell of rot and of unsavory vegetation that has been permitted to thrive. As you come to the water's edge, a wave of mosquitoes rises up to greet you. As you frantically swat away these annoying pests as they parry and come back again, your mind races to all the diseases they carry like Malaria, West Nile Virus, Dengue Fever and Zika Virus. You run as fast as you can away from this horrid and deceptive place. Once you are far enough away from the diseased-ridden vermin, you look back at the cesspool feeling saddened about what could have flourished there.

I know this feeling well because this is how I feel when I look back at parts of my own life. At one point in time, stagnation almost killed me. I was working for a large ad agency and in the beginning it was great. I was a young designer fresh out of college and this agency saw potential in me. They saw talent they wished to groom and promised me the opportunity to hone my craft. In the early years, all of the creative team worked on projects together. Everyone was allowed to bring ideas to the table. As the agency became bigger, those opportunities for group collaboration vanished. We became “specialized.” Each person did their part and their part alone, without an opportunity for change or deviation, and my part was resizing ads and making PDFs. I can remember sitting in my cube outside of the creative director's office, longing to be a part of the creative pitches again. Instead, I sat in my cube, day after day, year after year, resizing ad after ad. Slowly decaying in that small space, allowing resentment and self-doubt to fester. Worse, I created a contaminated environment. My negative thoughts infected those around me and made my work life intolerable.

One day, I walked in to work and realized I did not recognize myself. The excitement of waking up each morning, a feeling of lightness, purpose, and positivity that had always defined my life and myself was gone. My inner fire had been extinguished, smothered out by years of creative deprivation. Looking in the mirror, all that stood in front of me was a shell covered in algae and stinking of the decay of my life. So I did that one thing everyone has always wanted to do, but feels they never can: I went straight to HR and quit. I had no job and no idea what I would do next, but I knew that I would never sit in that small cubicle again and continue to rot away.

Years later that decision is still one of the best I have ever made. It taught me that I am a strong individual and that sacrificing one's happiness for financial stability is never “okay.” Today, I have a dream job that always challenges me to better myself and to learn new things. However, I know from experience that this might not always be the case. So to combat the grips of stagnations I started a “Painting a Week” project. Some weeks brought success and other brought complete failure, but painting made my mind move in ways that my work does not allow. It is so freeing to paint whatever whimsy comes to mind.

So please take a look at the collection and remember to always keep moving.