Adaptation is key (Patreon)

When I first began sharing art online and trying to build an audience, I used a single image to introduce myself. A wanted poster. WANTED for crimes against conformity, it says. It is still my thumbnail for all of my social media. It is still relevant. 

I'd found I was at a point in life where I was really fed up with trying to be all the things that others, over the course of a lifetime, thought I should be. It is safe to say that in many ways, that image was something that helped me to identify myself.

But personal growth is not a destination, it's a journey. I continue to grow and learn about my self!

This pandemic, with its isolation, has really reminded me of things I need to work on. Perhaps this is why people are going batty with not being able to do all the things they always have. Adaptation is key. So many people can't stand time with themselves. 

I get it. I remember being in my twenties. I'd been out with a friend, and knew I really needed to get home, I had things to do. I got home, and sure as shit, I couldn't handle it. I immediately called another friend to come pick me up. It was my first honest analysis or awareness of the fact that I didn't want to deal with me. 

I imagine that the people who are losing their patience with other humans and making scenes in the grocery store are having a similar experience. A sense of helplessness, a loss of control. A complete inability to still the nagging thoughts in the back of the mind. 

I did a second shoot in the same vein as my initial "Wanted" poster. Just a little reminder to myself and those of you who are watching. That girl in the image is an outlaw...or, at least to conformity. 

I won't conform to the current hopelessness and resentment to change that I'm witnessing in the world. "The only constant is change" says some ancient proverb. Or was it a fortune cookie? I don't know, doesn't matter. But I think that it's true. Adaptation is key. I can't say what the new normal will be when the dust clears. I am confident though, that the dust will clear. There is some part of me that is excitedly curious about it!