Why Be An Artist?

My teacher Sterling Hundley wants us to write about why we want to be artists. Here are a few reasons I've come up with:

• Art and design are things that I enjoy. Making a living from something I do for fun seems like an obvious choice.
• A common office job would bore me. Being trapped in a cuble day after day typing spreadsheets sounds horrible.
• My personal voice would hopefully be reflected in my output.
• A body of work would be left behind as a record of my achievements.
• I want a sense of accomplishment after finishing an assignment or project.
• The constant growth and learning that comes with the field appeals to me.
• Repetition gets old. Working as an artist would hopefully throw new challenges at me with each job.
• I want my career to be flexible if I ever decide that I need a chenge.
• As far as I can remember, I've had an interest in art and design.
• I want to do creative things with my life.

Alice Coltrane (1937 - 2007)

We've been losing a lot of famous people lately. James Brown died on Christmas. Gerald Ford died a few days after that in Palm Springs while I was there. Me and my family watched Saddam get hung a hundred times while spending the night in the Dallas airport. The day before my birthday, Alice Coltrane dies. It's weird.

Alice Coltrane was the wife of the great John Coltrane. I have a few of her albums, but she's still one of those music artists that I know I should dig deeper into but never got around to digging. From what I can tell, she was a deeply spiritual person and her music is beautiful. I'm also following her son, Ravi, and her nephew, Flying Lotus (alias). You can find out more about her here.
I did this fairly quick portrait of her using a few references. The hair is more along the lines of how she wore it in the 60's and 70's. The clothes are what I see in her later pictures. This was the first piece I've finished using my dip pens. I think they're my new obsession. As for the rest, I decided to go with flat colors in Photoshop. The patterns came from Indian wedding invitations, because Sterling Hundley says "If you don't have to draw it, don't!". I'm also trying to make my work dirtier because I can stand for it to be too clean!