Dear Artists...

 Today is February 14th and I am in a space of forgiveness for myself and others. One of the things I need to forgive is how hard I have been on myself as an artist. I hope that you to will be able to understand this as well. As Artists, we find ourselves trying our best to make the best work and the best pieces. I know that there are time where you think that you have to perform and create amazing work. I know there are times where you create something and it's never good enough. We must change our prospectives. You ever thought something you were doing wasn't good enough and then years later you look back and it was actually a great body of work? It's because of the feelings we carry toward our artistic moments and work. We as artists have to be more soft with ourselves. Art isn't about creating great pieces. It's about the ease into just allowing ones pieces to just come. I found that with this I have been hard on the people in my personal life as well. The world around is how we create our art and if We carry these hard emotions with us, the people around us feel them. So I have decided to forgive myself so I can forgive everyone else who I am hard on. They too are working pieces of art and deserve the time to have ease and be able to find themselves too. So today I vow to give the same grace to others that I am giving myself. I am learning that I haven't truly reached my true potential because I am still focused on some of the wrong things about myself. I have to be able to let go of some of my fears to fail and my insecurities. My biggest fear is failure. With that fear comes so much. The fear of failure has been on me since I was young. It started from me having such great people to look up to. My mom, aunt, father, and uncles have such amazing jobs and are living their dreams. I too wanted that and I also wanted to do it better. I started to compare my own success to theirs. Now I understand that success is what you need and want for oneself. It's not based on what they had accomplished. As an artist, your success should never be measured toward someone else's. I don't want to be stuck being mad at myself and others. Sometimes I get so upset with myself, I get miserable. I don't even create and I just sit in my emotions. That feeling doesn't feel good. We are supposed to be using our super powers to convey our emotions in real time. It also doesn't help that I am also upset at others because I expect them to hold themselves to the same standards as me. I feel bad and Now that I have acted this way, I will have to be a man and just own it. I also want to help people understand what I am learning too. I just need to understand how to softly keep myself accountable so that I can hold others accountable softly. I just want peace and love so that I can have peace and love for my craft. It just hit me again that we don't get this life again and I need to do better about how I go about it. I still will be looking for other opportunities, However what I will not continue to do is make others feel anything I am feeling. What I am feeling should be dealt with alone. However, Being artists, When we find ourselves being so strong with emotions and being accountable for our work, we must be lenient on ourselves. Its ok. I am here to let you know that you are going to make it regardless because we are planting the seeds in our minds and it will eventually manifest as fruit. We as artists don't leave no strokes untouched on our paintings. To all my artists who are hard on themselves and others, What do you plan to do to alleviate yourself of the self comparison, self fear of success and the harsh accountabilities for yourself/ others? I Looooooove yall so much. And thank you for allowing me to grow and thank you for growing with me because We just want To do art! xoxoxo