Branching Out

Artists are flexible creatures. We’re never just one thing. We have many hats: business person, administrator, doer, communicator, manager, etc.

This can also apply to mediums. All artists I’ve met do more than one artsy thing. There are digital artists who do sculpting, 2D artists who creatively write, and fashion designers who love caricature.

When I was younger, I’ve done a lot of different mediums. I’ve sketched, painted, sculpted, and woven. Interestingly enough, I still want to do all of those things! I only recently came to terms with it though.

When I declared to myself that I wanted to be a serious, “real” artist before I went to college, I tried imitating people I saw and looked up as much information as possible. Then came the word “niche”. Niche is basically a word to describe a specific topic, subject, or thing.

In business terms, your niche is your “thing”. What you’re known for, your goal, or your subject. Basically what your business is all about. Even though I hated being pidgeon-held, apparently I had to focus on one thing to succeed.

So, I chose digital art, which is what I did for the longest time. I still do but not as much as I used to. For years, I oscillated between wanting to make digital and traditional art. Feeling the desire to do both equally but being told I couldn’t. Mind you, I still didn’t really know what I was doing overall. And I was in college! Talk about stress.

Doing something about all of my art desires has been very recent. Probably a week or two ago when I started making a calendar for everything I’m interested in. Accepting my many interests happened about a year or two years ago.

So, in honor of honoring myself and my interests, I’ve been trying to make myself paint more, learn how to make my own clothes, and somehow sculpt. It’s hard starting from ground 0. Especially when I want to make things in a different way.

I feel like I’m on a time crunch even though I shouldn’t be really. I think it’s just goals and expectations I really wanted to fulfill.

At the end of the day, I hope that I do become proficient in all the things that interest me because they’re worth it.