Motivation Monday - Live Under the Sun

Love under the stars...

This month marks my 10 year NYC-a-versary. I've known this day was coming for ages, but it still feels like a 'pinch me' kind of moment.

I'm a Brooklynite now. I think maybe I've always been one, dormant at times, but forever moving towards this place that was always meant to be my home.

I delight in the little moments that are quintessentially Brooklyn.

Lately I feel a push towards the beyond. I wonder at the fact that I've managed to stay put in one place for so very long. That doesn't seem like me at all. Yet here I am. I keep wondering at where I'll be in years to come. I won't lie. Part of me can't ever imagine shopping at one store for everything I need. I think in my snobby NYC way, 'what a waste!' Food is meant to be gathered at the local bakery, the local vegetable store, the specialty cheese shop. Wine from a grocery store seems like a joke. I know that eventually time will pull me from this magical place, but regardless of where I go, or IF I go, I know that Brooklyn, will always be my adopted home.

When I got back from the magical and tropical paradise that was the Bahamas a earlier this month, I actually felt my pulse slow, my body calm and my lungs sigh a deep whisper of relief and peace to be back in my beloved Brooklyn.

Ten years ago I snapped this picture outside of my second story dorm room in Pantas Hall at Pratt Institute. We couldn't find a plane ticket that would get me in New York in time for school unless I went two days before official check in. Without a cell phone and too scared to scamper to Myrtle Avenue for phone cards I'd managed my first really truly all alone night alone. I woke up to find the campus full of newbies. I grabbed my little disposable camera and froze that moment of endless possibility as the sun came barreling up over the Arc.

I look at this photo ten years later, almost to the day, and I marvel at everything that girl was, more complete than I'll ever be again but so infinitely fragile.

That girl had never really been alone, never really been in love, never had the kind of friends that are family, never knew what it is to make hard decisions that will change the course of your life.

I sat on a park bench in Carroll Gardens on Sunday with my buddy Ashley. She highlighted a truth that I've been feeling but not quite able to put into words.

'We're in a place right now, where we can make decisions that alter the course of our life, and we can make them in five minutes flat!'

I remember what that feels like, it feels like being a freshman in college, with a new city sprawling out in front of me, new people and new places, and so much to learn. So maybe I am still as brave, and a little less scared, but mostly I'm just happy to be here.

So while I feel the need for a change... I look back on this decade with wisdom, love, and so much gratitude. Awww...Brooklyn, I'll love you forever.

Who knows what I'll feel when I look back on pictures from this month ten years from now?
I hope they draw a smile.

My motivation this week is being drawn straight up from the ground. For this entire week I push myself - and you, to pay attention to the world around you. Take the time to find little surprises of joy in your day to day. Step off the beaten path and remember your ten years ago self. You deserve that token of reflection. End each evening with a deep sigh of thanks for where you are and where you are going.

I hope it brings you the kind of happiness Brooklyn has brought me, the kind that fills your soul.

A Note on Collecting:

So you want to support the arts, you just don't know where to start? Here, I'll help.

This painting is my favorite in my collection. I personally think that everyone in the world should own an original by this artist.

Wait, Amber! How do we get that kind of art?! We
want art by that artist on our walls! Well you're in luck.

You can buy this art:

I'm frequently asked how my parents approve of my choice to become an artist and illustrator.

Recently, on a date with Dr. Jeff, I was told,
"Amber, you could have been a doctor or something stable and dependable." Nice.
Ooooooooh....Minus 10 points Dr.Jeff. tut, tut.My personal collection of Salvador Alvarez originals will never be complete.
These are paintings my dad recently finished on the art sabbatical he's wrapping up in Germany.

I was trained classically growing up. As a teenager I was fantastically capable of never appreciating what I had (duh): a stay-at-home-dad/live-in-private-art-instructor with a studio overlooking a deep blue Pacific Ocean.

(case in point, this picture is of me and my brother and sister playing in our 'front yard'.
It's taken from our living room)

My foundation year at Pratt here in NYC made me realize my unique experience - painting with sable brushes and Winsor & Newton inks on Arches paper before I could name my colors was actually something rare! Who'd of thunk?

( collaboration - a father daughter painting we did when i was eight months old)

When I got to college I was actually surprised at kids who didn't know the difference between hot and cold pressed paper.

I love these new paintings of the Mackenbach roadside. They are so subtle and somehow bold. I have no idea how to capture that kind of feeling. Our art is so different.

As a teenager, I used to truly worry that my dad wouldn't ever understand my kind of art.

I was afraid that my dream - you know the life I'm living now:
animator, fashion illustrator, surface designer, children's book illustrator
would be seen as a deviance from the noble profession of true fine art. When I close my eyes and I picture a 'real artist' I see a solitary figure and an easel in big open space.

I grew up being told "not to draw like a girl". You've heard of throwing like a girl? Well when you're sixteen and your hair is in braids and you'd rather be at the beach but instead you're drafting a hill of cardboard boxes as part of your formal training - you can most definitely "draw like a girl." It means don't be timid, don't be whiny, don't be scared, don't draw too faintly, be confidant, be strong.

When my Pratt life-drawing class required we anonymously tack up our figure drawings for our first crit my professor continued to point to my rendering and say "You can see in his drawing that________" When I went to claim my work afterward my professor was shocked. "This is your drawing?"

I ran home ( skipping half the way and probably stopping to pick a flower and feed the squirrels) and called my dad first thing. This proof that I didn't draw like a girl felt like that moment when Charlie finds the golden ticket in his Wonka Bar.

If you know anything about She Sure is Sketchy you know that the everything done here is made by one little Brooklynite unabashedly drawing like a girl without a shade of apology. I'm forever thankful to my dad and to Pratt for giving me the skills I needed to find myself as an artist.

Once I realized that the only thing I wanted to do was "draw like a girl" life just got so easy.

Since arriving in New York City nine years ago with nothing but a duffel bag and a wild set of bangs to show for myself, I've had a few perfect days with clear triumphs and life-changing milestones in my ever stretching career. One of the best came last year on the phone with my dad when he casually said
"Your work is just so strong."

So yes, I could have been a doctor, but so could my dad. If he had, I (and you) wouldn't have bangin' art like this to put on your walls:

Stop by Sal Paints Live - he's new to the world of blogging so go say 'Hi'.
You can inquire about pricing by emailing sales@salvadoralvarez.com Check out the studies and sketches offered up at his new Etsy Store. The prices there are made for young collectors.

More of his art can be seen at www.SalvadorAlvarez.com

OK, this post is long and gushy and totally something only a girl would write.
But seriously, isn't my dad the coolest?

Pammy Kay and Fire Island

Oh how do I love camping? Let me count the ways...

I trust that all you lovely blog stalkers had perfect long weekends. To celebrate labor I took off with a few friends and made a pilgrimage to an island of fire, specifically, Fire Island.

I was hoping to get more sketching done. Unfortunately I did not. I was too busy fighting off bugs and small children. Despite the aforementioned little issues, I had a great time. I read my book and lazed the day away, I played in the water and slept on the sand and I did a LOT of laughing. Everything about Fire Island took my breath away. I cannot believe how close it is and yet how far away it seems. Growing up in Hawaii has a lot of advantages but one of the disadvantages is that whenever I'm away from a large body of water for too very long I start to freak the hell out. Let's just say I needed to get away a bit.

I think I may need to find new friends by this time year.... I'm pretty sure Shilo and Sara "aren't never going to sleep on no @#!$% ground on no @#$!!(#**! island again." Poor dears didn't stand a chance. There's one time a year where I'm happy that my blood is so nutrition deficient and that's bug season at camp :)

The terrain was inspiring, the whole island has a boardwalk that stretches across it in a nice ambling sort of way. The sky seemed so big and the stars made the whole trip worth it just by themselves.

August 18th was my NY anniversary. It's been eight years since I trudged three thousand miles to start school at Pratt with nothing but a large duffel bag and a wild set of bangs. I never thought I'd fall so in love with the Atlantic, but have to say that I truly feel at home on its shore. I feel so lucky to be living this beautiful life surrounded by people I love while I nurse a thriving career in a city that still thrills me. It's enough to make a girl blush.