Try to not have a plan, it's brilliant
I never was a big planner, but it turns out it can be even more no-planny
Throughout my life, I usually did the things I was drawn to, those that I loved and wanted to keep on doing.
As advanced classes, I choose biology and art in high school, cos I loved them.
I didn’t care that this combination was unusual & caused me to have more school hours than others. Hell, I was able to paint at school! How cool is that?
Then, I decided to study biology, cos I loved nature, science, riddles, reading, writing and doing experiments. Seemed like a perfect fit.
Most of my studies I enjoyed learning, I did hate exams, maths, chemistry & physics though.
After my masters, I did an experiment & moved to the US for 6 months, to test if I can live abroad alone. Check that! I loved it.
I moved to Sweden for my PhD, cos I wanted to prolong my youth a bit by continuing to work in research.
I loved it most of the time, until I realized I was not a fit for academia at all. I knew I didnt want to stay.
So what’s next? Not sure.
But I realized, that science needs art & I lost myself in making my own scientific illustrations. It was magical!
Slowly people started to approach me for help. I said yes every time & illustrated other people’s work. I was in heaven basically.
So at some point I decided, I want to do that after my PhD, cos I loved it.
Turned out, that the best way was to start my own company.
Well, I can tell you I peed my pants at the thought of it. I hated money, had no idea about business, was traumatized by german bureaucracy… and still: I decided to do it because that was the only thing I loved & could imagine working with.
Now it’s almost 6.5 years later & I haven’t regretted it at any moment!
Looking back at all this now, I know I always followed my intuition, a gut feeling I had that was steered by what I love to do.
This was always my starting point & I had an end vision, but never really any plan :D.
Of course a soon as I decided to go for it, I moved and did what needed to be done, but it was never pre-planned, yet logical and making sense.
In a way, my heart and soul were the deciding instances & then my mind followed by executing what needed to be done, where I should go, how to do etc.
Where am I at now?
I feel I am at a very similar spot right now because I feel that I want and need something else.
Something more than scientific illustrations: more art, more love, more care, more community, more humanity, more feelings, and more hands-on stuff.
And I have no plan once again. Not even a clear end-vision. And that is one step more scary than what I had in my PhD.
Cos I knew I needed to start a company & learn to keep it running.
And now? I have no clue.
But you know what? I love it! It’s sooo freeing! Just surrenderign & trusting!
I still have my company, I still illustrate, but I am also painting every day: non-digital real-life paintings, analogue paintings, with paints & brushes, pens, on paper or canvas or wood panels, playing and learning to trust my intuition even more.
It seems like I am somehow embracing a traditional artist way more and more.
This is something I pushed away my whole life, but now I finally start to live it and I feel that my heart and soul were waiting for just that to happen.
I even signed up for an art program & am part of an amazing artist-community, whose energy I simply love.
I have NO CLUE where this is going, I just know that I love it, I love to paint, I am doing mini paintings, now I have created almost 400 artist cards with kind words on them that I will spread in Umeå, as little gifts to whoever comes across them.
My worries about humanity:
You know, one of the things that is worrying my these days is, the disconnection within people, and amongst people between each other.
At the same time, we all crave closeness & connection, while being distracted and bombarded with the newest technologies & tools & apps & what not.
But we are all artists, creators, need to use our hands and brains and hearts for everything we do. It is not enough to let tech-tools do our jobs, outsource our brains to them, even our creativity & then what?
We are left as empty shells? With no purpose? Disconnected?
Lost? Robbed of our deepest essence?
That is not the way I wish the world and humanity to go.
I wish us to connect, to care, to share, to love, be kind, create beauty and if I want that for the world, it is on me to start bringing it to thee world!
Creating art is magical, because it heals us, it helps us, it connects us, it evokes feelings and emotions, it helps us think, do and be and brings us closer to others.
So while I have no idea where all this is going, I have the deep feeling that painting and creating all that I do will not be wasted.
The thought of when someone finds one of my cards somewhere and feels joy, care or less alone fuel me with so much motivation, its hard to stop!
I will keep you updated on this whole endeavour!
Cos its not just the cards I will spread, I will also share more of my paintings & re-vamp my webpage, because I am done with splitting my scientist-being from my artist-being!
And let’s see where all this will lead me to!
Love,
Daria
Some work in progress & examples for you:
