Life's "Passion Fruits": Combining multiple skills and interests to find new inspirati
HAPPY DECEMBER!
This is the time of year when people take a deep dive into themselves to analyze, reflect, and plan to change for the better in preparation for the new year. If you are like me, then you find yourself on the struggle bus more often than you would like to. You have a million things to do and no time to do them! Through all that struggle, I have learned a lot about myself, specifically about my limits.
As a teenager I tried to do it all! I played multiples sports per season, kept good grades, volunteered, worked, played instruments and kept my social relationships somewhat under control. I carried that heavy load with me into my university years. Working multiple jobs, taking a full load of classes, singing in the choir, volunteering, playing sports, and parting with my friends (of course). It seemed so easy back then. Fast forward to now; I still have that drive and passion to always have my hands full but I am much smarter about it. I am more aware of the value of time and therefor, have been working on ways to be more productive while maintaining low stress levels!
In these first couple years of being a graduate, I have struggled with finding a balance between all of my interest . Sometimes I feel like I am being pulled in different directions and I don't know what I should be focusing on. Of course, I am an artist at my core, but that is not the only thing that defines me. I am also: an athlete, a painter, designer, cook, baker, knitter, writer, dancer, singer, musician, and outdoor enthusiast! We all know the age-old phrase still stands true, "Jack of all trades, master of none" (need to change Jack to Jill in this case haha) and I am no exception.
Though I am not an expert in any of those subjects, I am great at some, pretty good at most, and still struggling with a few. The act of practicing something new and having a variety of skills, is what fuels and also hinders me. I wonder if I should let go of some interests in order to improve my skills in others. In my opinion that would be taking the easy way out. I am a greedy person because I don't want to choose one passion to pursue. Balance is something I am learning to embody, in order to enjoy all my hobbies while continuing to thrive in other aspects of my life.
I want to do as many of my favorite things as I can because that is what makes me happy! But I want to do them with more success, so I have started to combine my other hobbies with my artwork! (I'm having a "should've had a V8" moment because it seems like such an obvious solution.) You can combine your passions to make your own genre/style of work. With this new personal inspiration I am really excited to see what comes next and how I can grow from here!
Art is not paying the bills yet, but my "day-job" as a bartender is really fun and I still get to be creative! I work in a beautiful farm-to-table bistro in downtown Denver and I absolutely love it! What's so great about my job, is the encouragement we have to experiment and be original with our cocktails. For the last couple of weeks I've been working on a small collection of original cocktails to pair with our brunch menu. I dedicated a lot of time to researching, learning from my peers and experimenting with flavors and techniques.
All that work resulted in 5 beautiful and delicious cocktails that my manager loved!! I was so happy and felt really accomplished! This project took a lot of time away from my art making, but when she asked me for the recipes I knew how I could bring the two together! It inspired me to make illustrated cocktail cards! These cards could then be used as learning tools for my fellow tenders to refer to when memorizing recipes!
I wish I could share all of them with you, but I cant quite yet. But I have included the recipe to one of my favorites. It is a very easy cocktail to build and uses ingredients you may already have in your home-bar (because everyone has one of those right?).
Here is to a new mindset and a brighter future! I am putting all my "passion fruits" in one basket for all the creative inspiration ill need get me through this journey!
Please let me know in the comments: What are some hobbies you can start incorporating into your work to make it more enjoyable? Also if you make and enjoy this cocktail!
Thanks for reading!
Latasha
