Sound Advice

Wearing:

Asos eyelet crop top
DIY shorts (from Ralph Lauren pants)
Topshop 2 Part Geek sandals
Mac "Party Parrot" lipstick
Purse from Barney's
Vintage and/or gifted jewelry

A year ago, a friend of mine convinced me to move out of state or to a bigger city.  She encouraged me to move because she had recently decided to move out of state herself.  "Small town, small minds," she told me. 

At the time I was going through an huge transition in my life.  I felt like I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life.  I had a plan.  A plan, that is...until I heard her advice.  We talked for about an hour about why it was a bad idea to live in this small town we both called home.  I found myself getting carried away and even began to daydream about where exactly I'd move to and when.  Then my well-meaning friend advised me to seek a job in a different field.  It was still within the giant umbrella of the art world, but so completely different than what I know I was meant to do.  Instead of painting and drawing by hand and computer and working for myself, I "could be making big bucks working for Lucas or Pixar" by doing "animation or whatever."  

Something I swore to myself I would never do as an artist was to work corporate.  I won't go into the boring details of working independently vs. corporately.  But I'll just keep it simple by saying that your artwork will no longer be your artwork if you work for a corporation.  I may eventually cave in in the future.  But for now (while I still can) I want to remain independent.  Besides, I love my little town.  I would not mind moving at all.  But for now this is the place I have chosen to live at.

Secondly, animation is not my field.  People who aren't familiar with the art world don't necessarily know the difference between good ol' fashioned art and animation.  But there is a huge difference.

Anyway...there is a point to all this, I promise.  Just bear with me.  

That entire conversation had my mind reeling for a few weeks.  I began to doubt my future and my career path.  Eventually the excitement wore off.  And reality forced me to be...well realistic again.

Not too long ago I heard a quote from a pastor.  He said to be careful of the advice you get from others.  You may be getting some great advice about your career or life, but be careful of it.  He said to take a good look at their lifestyle, morals, and goals and see if it matches up to yours and what you want to do.  I happen to agree.  We need to be weary of the advice we take from others.  Wish I had heard this before my friend gave me advice!  While her and I share some basic morals and values, our lives are completely different.  I choose my love of art over taking any high paying job that will not satisfy me.

I thought I'd pass this along to you guys.  Maybe some of you are in a rut and need major advice.  Be weary of who you take advice from!

xo  Azu