ABOUT
HELLO, NICE TO MEET YOU!
My name is Sina and I’m the artist behind these paintings. You want to know how I decided that painting was the right job for me? Perfect, just continue reading and I’ll tell you about the highs and lows of being a self-employed artist. For entertainment reasons, the story will be accompanied by some more or less crappy little sketches that have nothing to do with it. They were scattered around my apartment, and I just think they deserve some love too.
If you had asked me a few years ago if I ever imagined myself as an artist who sells her paintings for a living, I probably would have laughed. Not because I never thought about doing so, but because I always imagined this to be a distant dream. A beautiful, but quite unrealistic dream.
The thought of living this unsure, sometimes quite anxiety inducing freelancer life, where you never know what the next month will bring, and if you will have enough money to pay for rent and food, scared me. So I did what I thought was the best alternative: I went to college to study graphic design.
And it was really fun. I had different courses where I learned about the most common design programs, but also about things like composition, color theory and the combination of art techniques. Even though it was a lot of work (oftentimes I’d find myself working on projects past midnight), I really enjoyed how I could literally watch my artistic skills improving,
Then came the time to enter the real world, or, in other words: To join the job market. After unsuccessfully writing hundreds of half-hearted application e-mails and several bad job interviews, I realized that all this marketing stuff just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t imagine myself working for other people, always adjusting my designs how they like it and never letting my creativity flow truly free.
So I made a decision. I started working two small jobs to cover my bills. And then I picked up a brush and the canvas that was laying around my apartment for half an eternity and started painting. In the course of a half year, I created one piece of art after another. And, even though some months my income was barely covering my basic needs, I felt happy. Content. Like I was exactly where I’m supposed to be.
And then I got my first commission. I was very nervous, to say the least. This would be the first painting I’d really be paid for. What would happen if my customer wasn’t happy with the result? But when I showed her the finished painting, all my worries were swept away. Seeing how much she loved it really gave me a much needed boost in confidence.
Since then, I sold some more commission paintings, of which some were fun to do, others almost made me lose my sanity, but all of them helped me to improve my artistic skills.
Currently, I am planning my first exhibition. Even though I like painting commissions, I would love to see that there are people out there who adore my own, unique style of art so much that they choose to display one of my paintings in their home.
My wishes for the future? To continue doing what I love- and maybe be successful enough to do it as a full-time job one day.
