It's been a while since I wrote and a refreshing 4 months full of change, delight, adventure and more!
Over the past few months I resigned from my job, took three months off to focus on my art, hit the 'reset' button, learned how to transition into family life, traveled, found a new job and just did nothing. Time is such a precious commodity these days and to have it is to cherish those special moments small or large. Here's a few things I learned along the way..
photos by Tim Wong
Being married never felt so good...
After 6 years of dating, T and I got married on a beautiful sunny day in Half Moon Bay. We were surrounded by our closest family and friends from every stage of our lives, childhood, college, high school.... I can't help but wonder, why didn't I get married earlier? I never knew it would feel so good..ok OK...people DID tell me to get married earlier but this was the perfect moment....and you can't rush a perfect thing right?
I was a bit nervous since the day before was freezing and my mom literally called everyone to bring extra clothes to keep warm. We've been through so much including cultural and experiential differences that could have easily pulled us apart. I'm now a new mom taking care of my beautiful 11 year old step son Lucas and never knew marriage could feel this fulfilling. I tell T we're still in the honeymoon period and he responded with 'We've been in the honeymoon period for 6 years!' :)...A huge highlight of the night was a surprise Lion dance from the 'Lion Dance Me' troupe (who competed on America's Got Talent). I stumbled across their company while trying to find a special 'something' to celebrate my Chinese heritage and surprise my our parents...(Check out the video below...the first LED lion dancers).
Love is not loosely used between us and now we know that everything we've worked so hard for was truly a testament of unconditional love, resilience and compassion...nothing more..nothing less..just perfect.
Do more of what you love and take risks
In the spirit of growth and curiosity, I really wanted to flex my artistic muscle and took a creative chance on a few things over my break.
1.)
Attempt to design my wedding. I went on a diy-spree by creating 500 coffee filter flowers, 16 tissue paper poms, painted a tryptic guestbook, made origami ceramic vases...covered my house full of glitter and paper for days....and managed to drive T crazy...but in the long run..it was worth it :) The idea was to take time, explore new artistic processes and create a vision for something deeply personal to me...my wedding. More pictures to come :)
2)
Apply and exhibit for the first time at a major art fair: Renegade Indie Art and Craft Fair Austin SXSW. I remember one day flipping through Instagram and saw 'Renegade' post a call for applications for their Austin show. Renegade is one of the biggest indie art fairs held in Brooklyn, London, Chicago, LA, San Francisco and Austin. I said, 'What the heck' and applied...This is a curated event and a day later, to my surprise I was accepted! 3 weeks before the show I gathered as much information as I could - set up - travel - production - support - sales - permitting - you name it. Long story short, I couldn't trick any of my friends to go but managed to have my cousin support me while she was visiting Austin, bumped into a high school friend who happened to live in Austin with his family and got a lovely city tour from a friend who's a country singer. I went by myself, carried two huge check in suit cases filled with prints, wedding decor (I had to borrow from my stash given the tight timing) and lucky money magnets... lived off fruit, pizza and splurged the last day on Austin delights (Perla's anyone?). It was a stretch, my first show, got some great feedback..was one of the most exhausting things I've done...flew back to Cali and felt a great sense of accomplishment :) It wasn't for the money, it was for the curiosity, growth and learning opportunity.
3.)
Signed up for an art bootcamp with a renowned art agent Lilla Rogers.
I stumbled across an amazing art bootcamp from Lilla Rogers
http://lillarogers.com/. She's had over 20 years of industry experience and her e-course talks through art trends in the Paper, Wall Art, Baby Apparel, Editorial, Scrapbooking, Textiles market and more. Her class is full of joy, support and experts in the field brining real world experience and talent (e.g. interviews with Directors from Crate and Barrel to Anthropologie and more). Her classes are intense, really push you to grow as an artist and I'm learning more and more..
See more of my stuff here.
Go out there and travel. Near or Far.
Getting away was a great way for me to serendipitously meet great people, get a greater sense of renewal and simply enjoy what matters...time..space..and new experiences...
Los Cabos, Mexico
I had a burning desire to getaway for a bit before the wedding. I didn't want to go too far so I decided to go to Los Cabos to surf. Unfortunately it wasn't surf season but I made the most out of it and took city tours, glass boat tours, enjoyed some Mexican embroidery, read at the beach, watched movies and did nothing :). It was whale watching season as whales migrated from Alaska to the warm Baja Peninsula. The most beautiful site was seeing whales breaching right in front of my hotel by the ocean. The best was also having an impromptu Spanish conversation with my shuttle driver...priceless..(nothing beats communicating like you're playing charades and remembering words from my high school Spanish class).
Disneyland
Last minute road trip with my friends to the happiest place on earth...and a place of childhood memories. Need I say more? Oh and it was 'A Small Worlds' 50th anniversary :)
I'm grateful for the real luxury I had, time. Time with Attention. Because time in itself is pointless without the attention to enjoy it. Really happy I had T, Lucas, family and friends to support me through my curious shenanigans .....Here's to more!
