【Job Diary】01. The second half of life begins like this

Resign

I submitted my resignation letter to the company this week.

In the past one or two years, I have rehearsed the situation of this day countless times in my mind: excitement, excitement, relief, darkness... When I really uttered the word resign, it was very calm. I have saved my life savings for the next 12 months (ahem, if inflation doesn't get out of control), and plan to give myself a year to settle down and do what I want without the pressure of getting a job. My boss asked me if I should consider applying for leave without pay first, so that at least medical insurance and other employee benefits can be linked to the company for a few months.

Wow, God treats me well, thank you.

fool

Asked about the tarot before going on a trip last month.

This group of cards revealed the message: I am destined to pursue deeper wisdom, but I am currently trapped in the battlefield that I have set up and the temptation to be unworthy of nostalgia. Hit the road, and believe that you can find your way through the unpredictable road and establish your own fulcrum of balance. This should mean, I should resign, don't wait any longer. Bar. (😜)

My favorite tarot card is number zero, The Fool. It depicts a person walking around with curious eyes looking around and jumping on the road. This person only carried a small burden and a mobile phone, looking ignorant and confident. The sun is shining and the scenery is charming. On the plug of picking flowers, even the puppy walking around is jumping and barking happily. It's not that she didn't know that she might fall off a cliff, but she didn't know where the courage and belief came from. She always thought that even if she fell, she could get up again and move on, and she had her own blessing.

abstract

Anderson Ranch Arts Center is a comprehensive art center located in Aspen CO, a ski resort surrounded by mountains, with comprehensive art workshops such as painting, printmaking, wood art, pottery, sculpture, and Digital Fabrication.

I took a one week printmaking class here last year and it was great. This is a sketched, dyed rice paper that I drew before I left Anderson Ranch last August.

A year later, I'm here again... for a painting class.

The first week's class is abstract landscape painting by Mr. Michi Meko . I have never been in contact with abstract creation in the past, I just think it looks easy, but I don't know its origin. Inspired by Mr. Michi, we started material experiments.

Own it!

I was very fond of ink from the beginning, but since everyone used acrylic paint to paint thickly, I also tried to paint with acrylic, and I was in a hurry and couldn't find Bei. Then Mindy came over and said she liked my ink paintings, saying that my paintings reminded her of an artist she followed on Instagram, who was also Asian.

I said: yeah, isn't it too cliché for Asians to use ink to draw...so I kind of avoid it.

She said: Ohhhhh... I never thought of it that way... is it because that's how you guys learned calligraphy? No wonder so many Asian artists are good with ink! Now it all makes sense!

I secretly laughed and thought to myself: Did you just find out now?

She went on to say: So what?! I grew up in New York. I paint like a New Yorker. So what?

Eh? When she said that, I was stunned. is not that right? so what?

Maybe I'm just finding excuses to not do The Work. I replied.

"Right! Finding excuses! Well said," she continued, "Why don't you just own it? It's in your culture, and it's what you grew up with. Just own it!"

After the first week of class, I felt that my mind was greatly liberated, and my writing suddenly became much easier.

figurative

The teacher for the second week is Esteban Del Valle . His teaching is the exact opposite of last week's Michi teacher, emphasizing observation sketching and various picture making techniques. If Mr. Michi's class liberates my nature and breaks my own prejudices and constraints, Mr. Esteban pushes me to go further...

I also wrote limericks (after finishing writing, I suddenly became interested in calligraphy and began to practice calligraphy madly😅).

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When I got home this month, I reviewed my paintings from the past two years and saw my expectations for my small home in the future when I was looking around and buying houses at the beginning of last year:

...deeply relieved. My current home is what I want it to be.

second half of life

The next twelve months, is the gap year? Is it sabbatical? Or just lay off. In Jewish agricultural traditions, cultivation is stopped for one year every seven years so that the soil can recuperate. People are the same, they can't work all the time.

I feel that the first half of my life has been taut, taking exams, going abroad, working, promoting, saving money... Now I have to loosen my ties, adjust my state, and hope that I can be more free in the rest of my life.