Category: the Life of anieKsteph

Where everything else falls…in the life category.

Three types of people you will lose when you start to pursue your passion

Three types of people you will lose when you start to pursue your passion

As a person growing into your chosen life, it is important to understand that some of the existing structures in your life are based on what was prescribed FOR you by others. To achieve the life you want you will need to consider the changes necessary to get to where you want to be. This includes thinking about the type of person you want to be.

Some relationships in your life will be like branches on a tree. The strong and important ones will grow with the tree; while the less important or unbalancing branches will need to be pruned, or worse yet- will get destroyed by a lightning storm.

3 People You Will Lose When You Start to Pursue Your Passions

Illustration by Stephanie Konu of Three types of people you will lose when you begin to pursue your passion
Illustration by Stephanie Konu

  1. The Becky’s and Tatiana’s

    These are the flaky friends who would often share in your misery when life was not as good. They usually spend more money than they make, and live their lives in bank overdraft. The world exists to give them things (in their minds only of course) and they frequently fail to follow through on anything.

    How to know if you have a Becky or a Tatiana?

    Set up a mental test for your friendship. When you see them next, suggest a S.M.A.R.T goal (Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Time Based goals). This could be something like asking them to meet you on Saturday to take photos at the park. These photos would improve your friend’s photography portfolio, and ultimately help them book more work as a photographer. If your friend initially agrees to the plan, but cancels or flat out flakes on the date without a very good excuse, then you know you have a Becky, Tatiana, or Tom or Billy on your hands!

  2. The people who boo you from the cheap seats. Alternate alias: the Haters.

    These people have a very negative outlook on life, so they are easier to spot from farther away than the earlier category. They are fueled by a negative and self-defeating mindset. For them the question is: “Why bother? It won’t be any good” for pretty much anything in life that doesn’t serve an immediate survival need. Fun and enjoyment only exist within their narrow purview of life; so if you look to them for validation in your pursuit of your life passions, you will be very disappointed.

    These people do not want you to succeed for a simple reason: misery loves company, and why should you accomplish what they never could? Do not pay attention to them because they will soon become your supporters when they see how well you will emerge from your transition into the life you want.

  3. Time Wasters

    These people can have similar traits to the previous categories. Becky and Tatiana waste your time by never following through. Haters also waste your time when you focus on their negative energy. This specific type of time waster is a person who will want to associate with you because of reasons that add to their own self-esteem. These people will ask for your time, and favours in exchange for some far-off reward (large gifts, promising to promote you, etc). When you give them what they want, all you end up with is a bill for your expenses and time lost from pursuing your passion.

    These people are dangerous because of one main reason: time is the only resource that you can’t ever get back. You really don’t have much of it to spare on meaningless associations that lead you nowhere. Spending too much time with these people will never lead to new opportunities, or to new ideas. Just to dead end nights where the only thing you have time to do before bed is to look longingly at your projects and sigh. Wasted time. Take back those minutes.

Living the life you want is not impossible, but it takes work and conscious observation of who you are. Keep going. You will get there. – Stephanie

Thanks for stopping by,

Stephanie

by @Lillybochic

10 Ways to Become Inspired

Creative blocks can occur at any point in the process. Whether you are writing a thesis, painting, or have to perform, you may suffer from the ability to become inspired.

Inspiration is one of those elusive things- we know that inspiration leads to creativity; but what are things that spark that fresh and new idea?

Here are my ideas for:

 

10 Ways to Become Inspired

 

 

  1. Go for a walk in the great outdoors. It doesn’t have to be a perfectly orchestrated event. If you live in a safe neighborhood, grab your keys and take a stroll outside.

    photo of woman wearing yellow dress
    Photo by Taryn Elliott on Pexels.com
  2. Visit a friend. Go and check in on your friend who lives up the road. If you haven’t seen them in a while, bring a small token to renew the friendship.
  3. Drive or ride your bicycle to a body of water nearby. If you are lucky enough to live near a lake or an ocean, take advantage of how fortunate you are! Go and see it!
  4. Purchase a small item from an independent retailer. “Mom and Pop shops” and other small businesses need your support. Without them, the world would be full of stores like Target and Walmart. We need to support the originality of the dreamers who dare to do something different. Kind of like you, right?

    man standing beside man holding gray club
    Photo by Jopwell on Pexels.com
  5. Make conversation with the cashier or salesperson the next time you buy something. Be friendly. You never know what you might learn from someone else!
  6. Clean every reflective surface in your home. It sounds weird, but follow me on this one. Reflective surfaces will usually allow you to see yourself when you polish them. If you focus on cleaning and polishing all of the reflective surfaces in your home, what you are also doing is spending time looking at your own reflection. What better way to become inspired, than by practicing positive self-talk in a mirror? You go and you get it!
  7. Empty the junk drawer in your house. You know the one I am talking about. Take the contents out to sort and organize. Something could pop out at you that is unexpectedly inspirational.
  8. Review calendars from previous months. Highlight your accomplishments. Own those moments of achievement.
  9. Clean out your Gmail inbox. Delete those email offers from Hello Fresh. Enough is enough already!
  10. Read an article about an upcoming holiday or event. The more obscure the celebration, the better. Learning about the customs of other people will spark creative questions and make you want to understand more. The more you understand, the more inspired you will feel to try other new things.

 

Finding that spark isn’t easy, but once you have tried these 10 Ways to Become Inspired, you will have a fresh set of eyes and a rested mind feel your inspiration come through.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Stephanie

 

by @Lillybochic

Stephanie’s Art Roll Call

I recently shot this video to feature the beautiful way my recent artwork carries on from one piece to another.

On a gorgeously sunny day I staged my artwork in the sunlight, and kept them organized by size/ style.

By arranging them in this style, the consistent use of a golden sun is highly prominent. One can also easily see the iridescent quality of each work, as they are very reflective in the sunlight.

The colours just pop! It’s hard to believe that there are no filters, or after effects on this video- this is raw footage of my work in direct sunlight- radiating positive vibes into the universe!

I think that a series of prints featuring all of these images would do well- and I will happily make these available if asked. I hope that my message of positivity is conveyed as an overall theme when this video is viewed, and that it brightened your day/ week as well.

Thank you for stopping by,

S

by @Lillybochic

Illustrated Poetry

Greetings from the void!

I am continuing to create illustrations of my early writing. I used to write poetry daily, often during times of boredom or stress at work. Since beginning this recent project, I have found poems written as far back at 2011- one year after finishing university and starting my life in the working world.

I once promised myself that I would publish a book of my poetry, and now that I am adding illustrations, I feel like they are more “finished” when paired with imagery.

When I wrote this poem I was very occupied with the concept of love and longing. My early post entitled “The Sun Who Loved the Girl” touches on this subject. I think it is an area that I would like to further explore for future writings.

Right now, I am working on illustrations for a book that my company is publishing. I did not write the books, but I have created unique illustrations for the cover art. I will post updates when the books are released on Amazon.

The following image is an illustrated poem that I wrote in 2011. It is entitled “Yearn”. I hope you enjoy it.

 

an illustrate dpoem featuring a woman drinking from a glass in a seductive manner
An illustrated poem written in 2011.

Thanks for stopping by, and please leave comments if you like my work!

 

-S

by @Lillybochic

Blue, Gold, and Turquoise Acrylic Art

My latest work is a 24 x 24 inch gallery wrapped canvas with beautiful colors.

Entitled “Bliss”, this work was completed in 2020 by myself using acrylic pouring techniques.

As usual, my artwork encompasses an experimentational aspect- with the mixture of water into acrylic paint, it is never fully certain what the end result of a painting will be.

Starting with a brilliant blue background, I layered variations of blue and turquoise on top of one another to build a deep field upon which to place the iridescent full turquoise colour.

Where turquoise is layered underneath the gold field, a head-like figure emerges at the top of the image. The figurative head is facing west, and looking toward the direction that the sun is emerging from.

The gold fields of this work are so dramatic, and bring immense warmth to the feeling of this piece. In sunlight, as seen in the photos above, the reflective surfaces are magnetic, and draw the observer into the piece.

The splashes of gold add drama to the lower left area of the image. It is evident here that the deep gold field was poured against the brilliant blue background .

I would be immensely pleased to recreate this artwork on a very large canvas. Larger artwork always allows the details and nuances of my work to be displayed easier. I would happily make prints available for this piece in the future if asked.

I love the positive and exciting feeling this emitted from “Bliss”- it truly is blissful to spend time appreciating it. 

Thank you for stopping by,

S

by @Lillybochic

Experimenting with early poetry.

 

Many years ago, I wrote poetry as a way to facilitate an honest dialogue with myself.

My rationale was: by writing down my thoughts and feelings in a stream of consciousness, I could train myself to be more honest with my true motivations in life and not what I thought I ought to do or say.

As a result, I nearly filled 3 sketch books with copius amounts of poetry. The only rule was that each book would need to be started and completed within one year. Each book is entitled “L’annee de creative 1, 2, 3 etc…I made it to the third year, then became side tracked by motherhood and the busy aspects of family life.

I have resumed my poems lately. One of the astonishing things I have found is that my voice is much better than I remember. I have written the prose well, and even made good efforts to rhyme some lines!

I took the time to illustrate a scene for a poem I wrote a few years ago, and I have posted it below.

If you enjoy my illustrated poetry, please like and comment. I have much more to share, but it means so much to me to hear back from you, and to know whether there is anyone out there in the void of space…

Thanks for stopping by,

S

Poetry by Stephanie Konu, romance love and longing
An illustrated poem by Stephanie Konu
by @Lillybochic

Large Blue and Gold abstract acrylic

Simple Sun Acrylic on Canvas by Stephanie Konu 2020
Simple Sun Acrylic on Canvas by Stephanie Konu 2020

 

My latest work is an extremely large landscape measuring 86 inches x 26 inches.

The work is entitled “Simple Sun” and uses brilliant blue, turquoise, and gold to make an abstract landscape of a rising sun over ocean waves.

 

Simple Sun Acrylic on Canvas by Stephanie Konu 2020

The unconventional size was as a result of making two large art canvases for a commissioned work. I was unsure how well I could create the size, so I made two.

 

Simple Sun Acrylic on Canvas by Stephanie Konu 2020
Simple Sun Acrylic on Canvas by Stephanie Konu 2020

 

The golden sun is a deep rich field that has a reflective and metallic finish. Where it meets the blue background, a hard edge is formed. The eye is brought to these hard edges and a high contrast is achieved.

Where the ocean wave meets the sky, turquoise metallic finishes edge the crash of a cataclysmic wave. Despite the enormity of the wave, it is still eclipsed by the magnitude of the simple sun.

In the heart of the sun, an orb of texture is visible.

Blue gold ad turquoise abstract landscape by Stephanie Konu 2020
Simple Sun Acrylic on Canvas by Stephanie Konu 2020

Creating this piece was very therapeutic for me. It took many hour to get the sun exactly right. When the (real) summer sun returns to my backyard, I will be able to take more accurate photos that do a better job at capturing the metallic finishes and reflection of light that make this piece exceptional.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

-S

 

by @Lillybochic