Last week at Taste Design Express with fellow Women Creators (Christine Auscion of Spread the Bagel, Jasmine Chen, Jazz Singer from Crazy Rich Asians, and Lindsay of Café del Volcán), we had a great time painting, chatting, and eating together to celebrate International Women’s Day and to share how we create our passions to life. As an added bonus, we launched my first textile collaboration, cukimber x Café del Volcán bags.
Thank You to Lindsay, Nils, the Café del Volcán team, and the Sip N' Paint team for the support!
Below are some of my better musings from the talk:
Creating to me can come in just about any form - and you don’t need to think about it in just one category.
Almost everything I have done or accomplished thus far came from almost no experience and formal education in whatever field I was interested in improving. I just knew that I had a dream, took methodical steps to get there, decided not to give up, and set deadlines for myself.
So, how did I go from restauranteur to painter/residence artist at Volcan/fashion designer?
The backstory goes like this. I had a dream since I was 5 of being a fashion designer, and then…did everything to avoid it. No time felt like the right time.
But then…I just decided it was the right time when I finally mustered some more courage to just do it.
Instead of just diving into fashion school, I decided a cheaper alternative was to start practicing painting, because I needed to understand color composition. Then I hit a roadblock in getting better and decided to find some teachers. I found Sip n' Paint and started painting.
After my very first painting, the teachers saw something in me and said they were going to give my contact to a gallery owner. After one painting? How could it be? To me, it showed the importance of being around those that support you and lift you up.
I kept at it, painting 3+hours at a time whether it was after work or on the weekends, on multiple canvases and I just kept going. I painted as if they were one day going to become fabric.
Running into my friends Lindsay and Nils (and former coffee bean suppliers), I talked about my paintings, I suggested we do something, and then became the resident artist. The art was up within a month.
Then came me talking about my passion for designing textiles. I had been already been dabbling and making products here and there, and decided to try my first collaboration.
What next? You’ll just have to follow me.
