turnip

I’ve been doing some weird stuff recently.

For example:

On Instagram, you may or may not have noticed that sometimes I just spontaneously burst out into poetry on the fly. And so, you may be scrolling through your Instagram feed, and all of a sudden, you see some rhymin’ from Aurelia, and you start to think…

"Uhh… Say what?"

Yeah.

I know I’m weird. But I’m supposed to be weird.

I’m an artist.

But bear with me. There is method to my madness.

Some time back:

I was watching a recording of a retirement seminar given by one of the world’s top writers.

In the seminar, he decided to share all his top secrets for becoming one of the greatest of writers.

One of the biggest secrets I learned?

Be an artist. Not an athlete.

While the athlete peaks at a certain age because of the physicality of his profession (and so the never-ending mad scramble to achieve as much as possible before they hit their prime), the artist doesn’t have this problem.

As artists, we are athletes of the mind.

We don’t have to care about the prime of our physical bodies passing us by.

So all we really have to do is to keep sharpening our minds while not putting too much stress on our bodies. Theoretically speaking, the mind doesn’t really have a peak. Which is probably why the saying goes… with age comes wisdom.

This also means that…

… as long as we keep honing our minds daily…

… and take proper care in maintaining our bodies…

… the older we get…

… the more mentally amazing we become…

… and the more incredible our art becomes!

In other words:

If you’re in any creative profession, don’t try to rush things. You don’t need to. Take your time. Relax more. Rest more. Spend more time daily working out. Mentally and physically. And just have more fun.

We don’t need to burn ourselves out at both ends.

Because we don’t peak at a young age like athletes.

As long as we keep improving, the older we get, the more powerful our minds get, and so does our art.

One of the things I do to improve my mind daily?

Spontaneously bursting out into poem.

Sometimes even song.

Other weird things I do in an effort to improve my mind:

– I always eat and brush my teeth with my non-dominant hand (left hand, since I’m a rightie).
– I spend time practicing and writing out positive affirmations in cursive everyday (helps direct my focus while building my brain, aka homunculus theory).
– I like to fall asleep to the sound of Christmas music (hey, it helps me relax and I just love Christmas).

I guess I’ll stop here.

If I share anymore, I’ll REALLY start to get embarrassed…

Sincerely,
Aurelia Nobleia
"Weird But Wonderful"

P.S. A little random poem from me today:

"A fishin’ I will go.
Because of how it relaxes me so.
But skies are gray.
And the storm doth stay.
So inside I play.
Drawing about fishing today.
To the store I now add this.
For those who would reminisce.
About a fishin’ day gone by.
Missed out because of dark skies…"

Making money is Art. Working is Art. And good business is the best Art."
– Andy Warhol

When I was a kid, one of my relatives was an amazing baker.

She’d often bake all sorts of cakes, cookies, and tons of other pastries for us and the rest of the family. And her baked goods were uber delicious!

One day:

She decided to start her own business. Making cakes for birthdays and other events.

I still remember her first order.

It was from one of her friends.

This friend had a kid whose birthday was coming up soon.

And so…

She ordered a delicious chocolate birthday cake. Just for the event.

My relative was delighted!

And she got down to working. Preparing to make a delicious cake, like all the others she was known for. And soon, as the day approached, the cake was done.

But it wasn’t over yet.

There was one more thing to do.

Before she delivered the cake, she still had to…

… decorate it.

I still remember I was in her kitchen at that time. All of us there suddenly had blank looks on our faces as we stared at the almost-finished cake on the counter.

Uhh…

How do you decorate a cake?

Turns out that my relative had always been making delicious-to-eat cakes. But she’d never actually had to decorate them before. Now that this was the first time, she’d never thought about what she’d do.

It’s just decorating a cake?

Couldn’t be that hard, right?

A short while later, out came the whipping cream.

And:

With an unsteady and untrained hand, she made a really unsightly-looking "Happy Birthday" squiggle across the top of the cake that was hardly legible, along with a couple of hearts.

To be honest…

… it was hard to look at.

But the cake was delicious. And that’s more important right?

Well, shortly after… the cake was delivered to the client. We left right after dropping it off. My relative had a smile on her face. She didn’t think that the design really mattered. But in the car, I couldn’t stop imagining the look on the kid’s face once she’d open the box and saw what her Birthday Cake actually looked like.

Yeah, it was a delicious cake. For sure.

But:

That’s not really what most children look for in a cake, is it?

They want it to look fancy. Cute at least. And maybe even get a gasp or two from their friends at the party.

Needless to say:

My relative’s friend never ordered another birthday cake again.

And the cake business…

… rather quickly came to a halt.

So it is for most businesses out there.

There are so many well-meaning business-owners with a great product or even a great service. But then, they underestimate the importance of having great design and packaging to top it all off. And they try their luck at doing it themselves with their unsteady hands.

The end result?

Their customers come once for a taste…

… and…

… they never come back again.

(Some kids even end up getting scarred for life in the process too.)

And while there are businesses out there where looks don’t matter at all, and no matter how ugly your goods are customers couldn’t care less about how it’s packaged and only care about the end result…

… those businesses are a rather… tiny… minority.

But if you’re not in that minority?

And you don’t wanna risk scaring all the kids away with an unsteady hand and watch as your customers never come back?

No worries.

As always, I’ve got your back.

All you gotta do is drop by anytime… 😉

Sincerely,
Aurelia Nobleia
"The Steady-Pawed Princess"

Today, I received an email from an old friend:

"How are you doing, Aurelia? Why didn’t you reply to my message on Whatsapp?" the message went.

"I’m doing fine, thanks. Long time no see! How’s it with you? Uhh… I don’t have… Whatsapp?" I replied.

Truth is, I don’t even use social media.

Except for my business.

Yeah, I know…

You must think I’m weird.

That’s ok. I’m an artist. I’m supposed to be weird. 🙂

But then the conversation continued:

"It’s tough. I’m working my fluffy butt off everyday. Struggling to survive. I envy you. Dumping your job all those years ago to pursue doing stuff you love," she said.

After a few back and forth emails…

… it was clear that…

… unlike what they would have you believe on Labor Day…

… according to my friend…

… labor really isn’t something worth celebrating about.

On the contrary. It’s downright rough, tough, filthy, uber hard work.

I would much rather celebrate finding something you love doing everyday, so much so that it no longer feels like labor, and so (in the words of Mark Twain) you never have to labor a day in your life.

And so, in spite of all the celebrating about Labor today…

… I’ll gladly decline.

And throw it all in the trash!

Because I don’t want to be doing labor. And celebrating labor. And taking a day off from the harshness of labor just to celebrate about doing labor for the other 364 days of the year.

I just wanna have fun.

Doing stuff I love and enjoy.

And not having to take a day off from it all.

Because I love and enjoy doing it. Just as much as I love having my enjoyment seep into my masterpieces, and spreading cheer and joy throughout the whole world.

When you love what you do, it shows.

And people can tell when you put out stuff that’s made with love and enjoyment…

Sincerely,
Aurelia Nobleia
"Labor-Hating Bunny-Sloth"

P.S. Speaking of having fun, I had a lot of fun today making this new wreath. Ha ha.

It’s so different from what I normally create…

But I had a blast making it! LOL.

On the evening of our wedding anniversary:

Me and hubby were watching an interesting documentary at home.

It was about an artist competing against a computer to see whether computers had reached the point where they could beat humans at art.

It wasn’t your average traditional art.

No drawing.

No painting.

No wood carving or scrolling.

But:

It was the art of…

… chess!

Well, a variation of chess anyway… called GO. Basically it’s a strategy game where the only pieces are black and white stones. With the objective being to capture more territory than your opponent.

It’s infinitely more complex (and creative) than chess.

And for the longest time, no one could develop a computer program that could beat a top level pro at the game.

Until 2016, when Google developed the AlphaGo program that beat the world’s greatest Go genius, Lee Sedol.

Honestly:

I knew that the documentary had won a lot of awards. But a game of Go? I thought it was gonna be boring.

How wrong I was.

And it gave me a lot of insights into a different kind of art. And how machines are slowly eclipsing people even in the most creative pursuits.

But what amazed me the most:

It wasn’t the fact that the machine beat the man.

While everyone else in the film was focusing on an epic battle of man versus machine (the heartbreak was apparent when man lost, the joy of victory was clear when man won), my focus flew away to somewhere very different.

What I saw was not a machine.

But rather, a product that was created by the intelligent minds of hundreds of people… pouring out their knowledge and skills into a single pursuit.

That’s what defeated the man.

Not the machine itself, but the unity of a hundred men.

It got me thinking:

Instead of pouring all that intellectual effort into making a machine that could defeat a person at the most creative of pursuits, what if…

… we took those hundreds of men and…

… used their skills and intellect…

… and poured it all into the development of…

… a single person!

Would we get the next Captain America?

Or maybe even another Leonardo da Vinci?

Well, only time will tell.

I don’t know of any computers intelligent enough yet to create the beautiful wreath borders I illustrate though (fortunately). A lot of people probably wish we could have one in every home. My hubby would probably love creating one. But we aren’t there… yet!

(* wipes sweat away)

So for now:

You’re stuck with me.

And my store.

And the lovely stuff in my store. 🙂

Which you may or may not be happy about.

But I’m definitely glad that I haven’t gotten replaced yet.

Phew…

Sincerely,
Aurelia Nobleia
“Still Irreplaceable”

A couple years ago:

I was in my home office. And wondering whether I’d gained any weight.

After all, I’d been sitting at my desk a lot recently… drawing, painting, molding, sculpting, crafting, and what have you… resulting in a not-so-in-shape type of lifestyle that included the sin of not getting enough exercise either.

I pulled out the scale from under my desk.

Stepped on it.

And was shocked.

You know, I’d never actually been overweight before.

But this time, I was dangerously close to crossing the line. And I mean dangerously. If I didn’t do anything about it, it would be a nightmare. So it was time to take emergency corrective action.

I started eating less.

I started exercising more. A lot more.

And most importantly…

… I started keeping track of my weight throughout my waking hours, just like your kid at the back of the car checks on you during a long drive (are we there yet?) to the point of you almost having a mental breakdown.

But:

Check as I would…

Days passed. Weeks passed. Months passed.

Still no weight lost.

I mean seriously. This was in spite of less eating, more exercising, and a hundred other things I tried. Well, maybe I did lose weight. Maybe I did lose 100 grams, or some other number too tiny to register on a non-digital scale.

But I was getting frustrated.

Seeing this, my hubby looked at me and said:

“You wanna lose weight?”

I turned to him sheepishly and said:

“Yeah…”

“You sure?” he questioned.

“Uhh… yeah…?” I looked at him blankly in response.

“Alright, here’s what you gotta do. Just stop doing everything you’re doing. And do this one thing… Turn off your alarm in the morning, and sleep as much as you want,” he said.

Uhh???

Ok???

Well, what did I have to lose?

I gave it a shot. I stopped all the less-eating, the more-exercising, and just went back to my normal daily routine.

Except that:

I turned off my alarm in the morning. And started to sleep as much as I wanted to. Or as much as my body needed to anyway. One of the perks of being a work-at-home artist, fortunately. I’m allowed to do stuff like this.

One week later…

… to my shock and surprise…

… I actually lost 8 pounds! :O

Oh. My. Gosh.

I never realized then that… sometimes… the most basic things in life are still the most powerful (and the most important).

Stuff like air… water… sunlight…

And yes…

Sleep.

Just another one of those necessities. But if you think it’s just a basic necessity, you would be wrong. Because since then, I’ve learned that it’s so much more…

Everything, from better weight management, to better social relationships, to better art creation, to better finances, to better looks…

It’s all affected by how much you sleep.

Some time after my weight loss mis-adventure, my hubby recommended me the book “Why We Sleep” by sleep scientist, Matthew Walker.

In the book, Walker talks about how…

… one day, after one of his lectures on sleep, a performance pianist came up to him.

This pianist happened to attend one of his earlier lectures on the importance of getting more sleep.

For years, the pianist had been having problems with certain songs he had to perform. No matter how much he practiced. No matter how long he practiced. No matter how he practiced. He just couldn’t play certain passages right.

And he just couldn’t figure out how to fix it.

After listening to Walker’s lecture, he decided to just give it a shot. He went home, and got himself more sleep. Several hours more.

The next day:

Lo and behold, he started excelling in all those problem pieces without any extra effort or practice.

Sleeping more makes you better at almost everything.

With way less effort.

It’s also the reason why…

… in case you were wondering…

… it’s one of the things that makes my art pieces different from everyone else’s out there…

… namely that…

… these days, I always make sure to get more than enough sleep before I start creating my artwork (at least 8 to 10 hours a day). If I don’t sleep enough, I don’t create art. That’s just a simple rule I try not to break.

So:

It’s the Labor Day weekend!

Even if you have better stuff to do, why not try catching up on some sleep?

These days, almost everyone’s sleep deprived. Almost everyone needs more. And almost everyone will benefit from more. Your body and mind will thank you for it later.

With better looks, better health, better income, and better skills too…

Sleep tight!

Sincerely,
Aurelia Nobleia
“The Bunny-Sloth Hybrid”

It’s our wedding anniversary today! 🙂

Yay!

Yes, we did in fact get married on a Labor Day.

But, my how time flies…

9 years comes and goes in a blink. I really need to be careful. Because if I’m not, life will pass by in a flash, and suddenly I’ll be old and realize that I haven’t done anything meaningful at all! 🙁

Today:

We decided to do something meaningful for our anniversary.

We decided to stay at home. And whip up something super special together in the kitchen. Instead of going out. Or ordering a lavish meal delivered to our doorstep via limousine.

We thought it’d be fun. 🙂

And we had something really delicious on our mind. Something we saw on YouTube.

It looked fantastic.

Delicious too.

But most importantly:

Extremely nutritious!

I’m talking about cauliflower pizza! Made without any flour, gluten or processed ingredients. Totally comprised of fresh vegetables, nuts, herbs and spices. And yes, we were trying to make it as vegan as possible.

Thus the adventure began…

But unfortunately…

The adventure ended as fast as it started… because… after a long time of blending up stuff, and getting the pizza sauce and toppings ready, we realized that the cauliflower dough blend we made for the crust just wasn’t forming.

It was on the stove.

Flat as a pizza dough.

But it just wasn’t coming together. No matter how long we cooked it, it was still mushy.

Darn.

I knew we substituted too many ingredients from the original recipe while trying to make it even more nutritious! 🙁

And to make matters worse…

… we were starving.

And the pizza wasn’t ready… yet.

I don’t think it was ever gonna be ready.

Were we really gonna have to order a lavish meal delivered via limousine right to our doorstep?

Fortunately, not.

In a sudden stroke of creative inspiration, my hubby took the cauliflower dough, and made some additions to it… turning it into an amazingly tasty filling.

Next, he then used the filling, and alternated it with the pizza sauce (and some homemade vege crackers we had) and…

… created a uniquely vegan wholefood lasagne! :O

And it was the most incredible lasagne I’ve had in the longest time, vegan or no vegan! :O

I kid you not.

We ate and ate and ate and ate until we were stuffed. Along with all the other goodies we had. It was heavenly.

But looking back at this, I still have to give a little sigh.

*sigh*

Because:

It reminded me how…

… sometimes I focus too much on achieving a specific goal…

… like making cauliflower pizza…

… so much so that I lose sight of the big picture…

… like making an amazing meal.

And this means I’m less flexible. And less creative. And miss out on a lot of opportunities to take what I have and turn it into something even better than what I originally wanted.

I think the saying was:

“When life gives you lemon, turn it into lemonade”?

That’s what I’m talking about…

“When life gives you a useless cauliflower pizza dough that refuses to become a crust, make cauliflower lasagne.”

Sincerely,
Aurelia Nobleia
“I Don’t Have 10 Rings”

P.S. I didn’t create any art today. It’s a holiday for me. *Sigh*. 🙁

But I did fatten up my store by adding this wreath yesterday. 🙂

I hope you like it.

A couple days ago:

My hubby came over to my desk and asked me an interesting question.

“You wanna see something cool?” he said while beaming.

“Sure!” I replied in astonishment.

We then sat down and started watching a documentary. About creating art. Featuring someone the media calls “an art spammer”. And when the media says that, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are one. It just means that the media is looking for someone to paint as a villain so their story gets more views.

Anyway:

The documentary started off with this guy, Anthony, from Adelaide, Australia.

He was a failed musician.

He started a band with his friends. But they failed to make enough money to support themselves.

So they dis-banded.

(pardon the pun)

And he ended up in desperate straits. Because he wanted to create art for a living. But he couldn’t make enough of a living doing it.

So one day…

… he ended up searching the internet for clues on how to make a good living doing the art he loved – making music…

… and his search led him to…

… Matt Farley…

… who is one of the most prolific songwriters of all time. Writing over 22,000 songs to date. And making a decent $65,000 a year just from streaming and downloads of his songs from what I’ve read.

This figure doesn’t include what he earns from television and movie films using his music. And it also doesn’t include the income he gets from sponsorships by companies who want him to make music for them.

Anyway:

Anthony decides to contact Matt.

Matt agrees to mentor Anthony in the ways of the middle-class artist.

And the series begins with Anthony flying off to the United States to learn Matt’s prolific ways.

An incredibly interesting documentary series. Really.

I seriously learned a lot.

Some of the things I learned?

Well…

1. Quantity leads to Quality.

As creative professionals, we often censor our own ideas. Because we worry that they aren’t good enough.

We want to create masterpieces.

Amazing hits that everyone will love. And no one will criticize.

But in doing so, we end up limiting ourselves. And our work. With fear. And we end up creating much less than we could.

The result?

We end up not making a lot of stuff that would have been terrible. BUT… we also end up NOT making a lot of stuff that would have been EPIC.

Quantity doesn’t equal quality.

But it often leads to it in the end. If you create 20,000 pieces of art, chances are high that 1% or even 0.5% of that is gonna be a world-changing best-seller.

2. Don’t censor yourself.

The thing I like about Matt’s approach to art is that…

… he doesn’t censor himself.

He doesn’t just put out the art he thinks is great.

He puts out EVERYTHING.

The good. The bad. The ugly.

And this creates a very forgiving environment where… he doesn’t criticize himself… or care about the criticism of others… and allows his creativity to steer the way.

3. All you need is one hit.

Watching the documentary, I kept being reminded of something a famous artist once said:

All you need is one world-changing, chart-topping mega hit…

And voila:

All the lousy work you created in the past becomes Collector’s Items that people everywhere will fight over and auction for millions and millions of dollars.

Were Van Gogh’s first paintings (when he just got started learning) awesome?

Heavens NO!

Just like any beginner paintings, they were trash.

But are they worth millions of dollars today?

You know the answer…

So why would you censor yourself and discard the work you think isn’t good enough?

4. It helps a lot if you niche down.

While Matt did all sorts of songs… ranging from novelty songs where he just sang one person’s name over and over again… to more celebratory songs like those singing about someone’s graduation…

… he didn’t put all those songs together.

He put each category of song under separate Artist Names.

Like:

– The Artist Who Sings People’s Names Over And Over Again
– The Artist Who Sings About Country Names
– The Toilet Cleaners (an artist persona he created to sing about poop)

Why not be all things to all people you ask?

Because… psychologically… people automatically look at someone with a narrow range of expertise and have a better impression of them, treating them like experts.

Think about how much a Brain Surgeon makes compared to your General Practitioner doctor.

So if you have multiple interests?

You might want to put them in a separate business.

5. Double down on what’s working

You know what really got Matt started churning out songs like there’s no tomorrow?

At first:

He just created some songs for fun on Spotify and iTunes.

He checked sometime later and realized he made a whopping whole $2.

But then it hit him…

“Wait. If I can make $2 a year uploading a song or two. What if I created 10,000 songs and uploaded them? Wouldn’t that be $20,000 a year? And what about 20,000 songs?”

Turns out he ended up making way more than that.

Because when you have THAT many songs in your portfolio, some of them are uncontrollably going to end up becoming smash hit singles. Whether by luck or by skill.

But here’s the thing:

Most people do something. And they make a little money doing it. And then they stop.

Not realizing that…

… if they just doubled-down on what was working…

… no matter how small the success was…

… and did it over and over again…

… the money they made would exponentially multiply.

As the late, great John Wooden (who was once named the winningest coach in history) once said:

“Success = Simplicity + Repetition”

I agree.

So:

If you’ve been using my artwork to make your own creative masterpieces, and you’ve been making sales with them, and even hitting bestseller status left and right with all your new products like some of our fans are… why stop there?

Why not get even more of my art and create even more masterpieces and get even more sales?

I know it sounds simple. Too simple to accept.

But hey…

… why knock what’s working?

He he. 🙂

Sincerely,
Aurelia Nobleia
“Art Spammer In Training”

P.S. One last thing I learned from Matt:

Were all his songs life-changing, world-shattering hits?

Heavens no.

And he got criticized by a lot of people for that.

But did his songs make people laugh?

Heavens yeah they did.

(Especially his poop songs which became some of his top pieces.)

And what type of person would begrudge another person for making others laugh and have some cheer in their day?

No matter what you’re doing, make sure you have fun.

100 years from now, we’ll all be 6 feet underground anyway.

So don’t take things too seriously. 🙂

Cheers.

And happy designing.

(Inspired by Matt, I did create a fun new piece too recently, so do feel free to check it out in my store when you have time…)