Goodbye 2018

Goodbye 2018. You've been an interesting year. Although I have made a few questionable decisions during the year...I've also made a few smart moves. Luckily, the smart moves were made during the latter part of the year...which puts me in the right direction as we approach the new year...now if I can just stay on course.

Contrary to one of my earlier blogs, I may not he heading to Las Vegas into 2019. I’m starting to feel comfortable where I am (not just location, but in my life). My psyche is starting reach a point in which it’s compatible to my happiness. We’ll see..I still may make the move south, however, it’s no longer definite. Is anything?

Thoughts and goals for 2019…

• Be there with love and support for my last fledgling as he flies from the nest and his life journey begins.
• Putting my, traveling salvation show on some wheels this spring and summer and see where it takes m
• Opening business location somewhere and start dabbling in familiar and unfamiliar directions(animation, drawing/painting on different canvases, stretching my limitations). There are some many paths in my mind, that I may not just choose one, but several.
• I’m going to explore myself and push my boundaries in not just my art, but my life. 
• I’m going to taste life and start chase those dreams that I’ve desired.

So here’s to 2018! It was an interesting year whose time has come to an end. I’m looking forward to 2019, with less shackles binding my spirit and more freedom for my soul!

Follow me on the journey...

Smile

It’s that time of the year again. I’m starting to book events for next year.

Looking back at the event caricatures I’ve drawn over the past few years, brings a smile to my face. Not just from the thousand of caricatures I’ve created, but mostly from the joy my drawings have brought to others. Although, that statement sounds rather, self-absorbed, I have the smiles to prove it.

It wasn’t always this way....

Not too long ago (during and after an event), I was way too critical of my caricatures. Did I draw that nose correctly?...Did I make his forehead too big?...Should I have made her boobs that big?? (Just kidding...boobs can never be too big :) When an event was over, I’d come home and relax...and then the self-psychoanalyzing, would begin. I doubted the importance of my life’s work. I knew that they were just caricatures (and I don't know what I expected from myself), but I do know that I questioned the value of what I had to offer. I set the standards for my drawings exceptionally high and if I didn’t think I met those standards (and I usually thought, that I didn’t), the self-psychoanalysis began. It’s was an exhausting cycle and occasionally made me think, that I never wanted to draw at event again.

What changed? I focused the the smiles. I focused on the joy that I brought to others. I think we sometimes try to find something that’s just not there..and ignore the wonderfully obvious.

The best parts of life are the smiles.

Dead Inside

I am dead inside without my art. It's what drives my soul, creates my happiness. Without happiness, I cease to exist and merely try to survive. I liken it to working on an assembly line (or what I perceive, as what that would be like). Connecting the widget to the whatchamacallit, for eight hours a day, five days a week, for the rest of your life..or at least till you "retire" and spend the rest of your life acting as a mere participant, on the path to that inevitable end. Not that there is anything wrong with working on assembly line (it's honorable work) I just couldn't do it.

I am an artist. An artist who occasionally wonders to himself, what if I would have taken the path of others, I have known? What would have happened, if I kept that union job at 18 and continued to spend the rest of my life, sleepwalking. However I didn’t choose that path, instead I chose to follow my passion...as if, I had a choice.

As an artist, you don't have a choice. Or actually you do. You can choose to ignore your calling and spit in the face of the blessing you have received or you can choose to embrace the blessing and share it with others. I have chosen is the latter. This is not a financial choice (I have to keep reminding myself of this fact). If you make this choice to for financial gain, you are a fool. You make this choice, because you have no choice. A true artist, can’t live without creating. Without creating, you cease to exist.

Over the last few months, I have started to cease to exist and have paid the consequences. No creation, equals a declining lust for life. Besides loosing sight of my passion for my art, I was loosing my passion for life, the thrill of the chase, for lust in life. I missed the touch, I missed the endorphins..I missed life.

Life is back...

Clearing the Track

All Aboard!!

I have restarted the steam old engine. Now comes the part, clearing the track and getting this “antique” rolling down the track again...towards its destination.

I believe that clearing the track, may be the most difficult part of this journey. I come to realize that I may have unconsciously piled blockades on my track to impede my success (a sort of fear of success??). I need to get these blockades cleared before this train can start heading towards its destination. Sometimes it’s easier to pile unconscious excuses in your way to impede your success, than to actually succeed and deal with everything that comes with that success. If success was easy, excuses would be easier.

I think the first impediment to my success, is thinking that these creations are going to create themselves. Seriously.  It’s easier not to create, than it is to create, especially when money is not the issue. I can probably continue working 8 to 430, 5 days a week, watching Frasier reruns, going to bed and doing it all over again the next day...FOREVER!!!. It takes much less effort than being creative. But alas, I’ve grown so tired of this routine. I'm bored and going slightly insane.

So I need to climb up on the edge of my proverbial cliff, strap back on my ACME Jet Pack and catch that  #$*&$#$%& Road Runner!!!

Fine Art America - Michael Hopkins

The above, Michael Hopkins original drawings (as well as other Michael Hopkins Originals and prints)  are now available on Fine art America. If you’re interested, please check out the following link! https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/4-michael-hopkins.html

I Am My Art and My Art Am Me

Lesson learned. A broken arm can destroy a psyche, even if the broken arm, isn’t the one I thought was important. I tend to forget how much my drawing depends on my total well being and I how much my psyche depends on my drawing. As is common in my life, I often focus on things that I believe are vital to my well being and take for granted things that are really vital to my well being.

Oh,What A Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice To Deceive (Ourselves?) - Sir Walter Scott

I am my art and my art am me - Michael Hopkins (Yes, I know it’s horrible English, however you get the point).  

Although a trip to Las Vegas can seem frivolous to those who don't know me, this regular journey to my future homeland, does wonders for my mental state. It clears the cobwebs and assists the thought process for future endeavors. Las Vegas may be my final stop on this journey and the planning has begun. Being originally from the Seattle area, I miss living in the city. Las Vegas offers the same large city opportunities as Seattle for both me and my art, without having to deal with Seattle’s penchant for self-destructiveness.

So the next destination is set and the countdown has begun. Stay tuned and I’ll take you on this journey with me...

As for this last trip, I arrived in Las Vegas last Monday. My main goals were to get my mojo back (after breaking my arm at the end of July) and see my favorite band of all time, Queen (with Adam Lambert). Success was achieved on both goals! However, as happens quite often when I go to Vegas, temptation (in the form of an opportunity) was there to seduce me when I arrived and try to take my eyes off the prize.. So once again, I had to ask myself, Is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush? Or in Vegas, one might ask, Do you keep the full house or do you go for the four of a kind? If the four of a kind, equates to happiness..Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!

Which leads to me to another question, why am I always being tempted, when I’m so close to happiness??

So many unimportant questions, so little time…just draw.

Oh and here are a few pics from Las Vegas.

Elvis Was Here

See, I told you so...

QUEEN + Adam Lambert

More QUEEN + Adam Lambert

and more...

Control of My Destiny

Greetings! So last week at this time I was in Las Vegas, going through a metamorphosis of sorts. As dusk was approaching over the strip, I  realized, how good life can be.. Having just returned to our room at Mandalay Bay, after having a quick bite at the, New York, New York’s, Sirrico’s Pizza (I highly recommend the deep dish mushroom pizza) I sat in our room realizing just how happy I was. Looking over the strip at sunset, I wondered to myself, why am I not this happy all of the time?

The answer was simple, for eight hours a day, I am not solely focused on achieving my success and happiness. For those eight hours of each day (5 days a week) I am committed to achieving another person’s goals and success. So, you’re probably thinking, Hey stupid, that’s called employment!! I realize this and I'm OK with it (and I really do like my employer and “enjoy” most aspects of my job) but to achieve complete happiness I need to be in complete control of my life.

The problem with working for someone else is that they decide and regulate your happiness. An example; To achieve this brief period of happiness in Las Vegas, I had to put in succumbed to other’s demands, orders and decisions for for a extended period of time and then ask for permission for this “very brief ” period of happiness. The simple fact is, I am not in complete control of my life.

So I’m going to fix it. How do I do this? The plan is to focus every minute of my time (in which I am control of my life), to eliminate those eight hours when I’m not in control of my life.

1. For 8.5 hours a day, I’m going to ensure my future success, by ensuring my employers current success.This way, until I am no longer working for my current employer, I am going to make as much income as I can, (from my current employer) to pay off as much of my debt as possible and try to be as close to debt free, when I’m finally working for myself.

2. Spend 15.5 hours a day focused on my art ( i.e., draw, draw again, think about drawing, dream about drawing, write about drawing, draw some more, draw again, go to Las Vegas and think about drawing, come home and draw, draw some more……).

That’s 24 hours and that’s all I’ve got to achieve this goal...or is it? Hmmm? May I can find a way to use the, space time continuum, to find some more ??

Janis Joplin - 4/22/2018

This is my latest, Janis Joplin. I created this drawing on April 22nd, 2018, with black India ink on white drawing board. 

The inspiration is missing, but she's always there...