I found a moment

Life has been so crazy busy lately. In the last two months I've moved house, started working full time, and I still have to keep up all my after hours commitments, including keeping my label afloat, getting my freelance work done and keeping my French lessons on the go, while at the same time still having time for connecting with friends and getting some reading time in.

This week I added another crazy flavor to the plate of my life, I'm taking part in the NYC Midnight short story competition. So I have seven days to write a 2500 word story in the fantasy genre, with the subject mathematics and a pro athlete as a character. It's been chaos, and I am exhausted and loving it. I'm currently about 1300 words in and trying to pace myself. Hand in is on Saturday.

I realized recently that in all the chaos I have forgotten to draw. Drawing is my lifeblood. I literally can't remember the last time I sat down with pad and ink, focused on capturing the moment around me. I'm an artist and I live and breathe the visual, creating is food for my soul. This was a shocking revelation and my fingers started itching and aching immediately.

Problem is, I just don't have the time. How do you find the time when you don't have it? So I decided to keep a sketchbook on me always, and look for tiny moments. My moment ended up being Sunday morning, in church, sitting on the floor listening to Ross do an incredible teaching on the multidimensional presence of the kingdom. Breathtaking stuff. And then I realized there was a perfect picture right in front of me, and out came the notebook. And I drew. What an amazing feeling, the release of pent up creativity. It made me so happy.

So now my pledge to myself is to keep looking for moments, to keep my creative eyes open and to make art part of my life once again. I need to, it's the air I breathe.

Shar-Lee Jessica

P.S. Keep an eye on my blog for the official release of my currently unnamed short story

Brittany, Chai & Reminiscence

Yesterday I had the pleasure of handing over an illustration to my beautiful friend Esther. We go back a long way, from high school shenanigans to varsity days where I had the privilege of this seeing beautiful lady model my graduate collection like a Vogue-goddess, and then to yesterday, where Esther adopted Brittany (number two of ten). What a great moment, handing over my very first reproduction sketch, and chatting about our plans, nerves, hopes and dreams for the future, the awareness of the nearness and reality of this next chapter palpable in the air around us. As she heads off to further her studies in a brand new city, I head back to my home town, to spend the first season of my life giving my art some real and focused attention. It's terrifying, but it only takes a moment like this to remind me that it's possible, and the sun is about to rise on something completely new.

Esther dear, I wish you the best for the future, and thank you for the chai and reminiscence. Breton looks good on you.

wednesday to-do list

It's a busy Wednesday! I have some commissions to get to, as well as a final round of wardrobe and set planning for the 48 hour film project this weekend. I love all the creative work coming my way lately. I'm also working on a ceramics design collaboration with Manna Epicure on Kloof Street. Haven't been there? Tell me, when is it not a good day for a slice of the most fabulous red velvet cake you've ever had the pleasure of munching on? Go have a look. They also have one of my very own paintings up on their wall.
I'm so excited about drawing on teacups! Hope you all have a gorgeous sunny Wednesday.

Within the Realm of Possibility

I've been gone for a while. I guess you could say it's been a time of metamorphosis in hiding, kind of like how a caterpillar disappears into a cocoon for a period of time, undergoes a private and painstaking makeover process, and breaks out into the world again a completely different creature, with a new angle from which to look at life. I hate how cliched that comparison is but it's the truest one I could find. Since I last posted I've moved to a new city, gone through a life-defining heartbreak and heart re-healing, changed my mind about what I want to do with my career, committed my life to faith, gone back to my natural hair colour and adopted my first name again, and basically, looking back it's slowly dawned on me that I'm a completely new person in so many ways. It's exciting and it's terrifying, but I guess that's something you have to love about life. It gives us many chances. And with my new dream of pursuing art and one day having the privilege of being able to do that full time, I'm devoting myself all over again to keep drawing, reminding myself that ink and paper are the bread and butter of my life, and that brushstrokes and paint fumes are the tools I have been given with which to process my emotions and learn who I really am, and where I really belong.

These are a few of the sketches I've done in recent months. The first one, Brittany, got me my very first order over Pinterest, which reminded me, my dreams are within the realm of possibility, and I do in fact, know exactly what I was born to do.

in black and white

A little sketch I did a while back. The challenge was to use one colour only. What do you think?

Jess