I Just Hit The Reset Button

While I was working on moving to a new station in life, my parents, Earl and Shirley, passed away. This occurred around the time when I was starting to play with pixel art, so this happened:

Creating their images was honestly the weirdest creative feeling I've ever had. Most other projects are just jobs, but this was the first time I'd tried to recreate family members. I would move a pixel to the wrong spot and feel frustrated or disappointed. Then I'd move another and feel happy because I could actually feel when I was getting closer to their likeness. Moving the mouse was like operating a ouija board as I felt my way around. *shivers*

I was happy with what I'd created, but I started to become aware that these pixels weren't just a thing to do. They were reflecting my thoughts and feelings. These images made me think of my parents' life teachings. They often expressed that I should always do what I think I should be doing. Sound simple? Yep. You're right.

Recently, I'd noticed in my art and life is that I wanted extraneous factors to be removed. That included what I ate, scheduled, drew, posted, created, etc. I wanted to do more, but I needed to remove unnecessary friction. To accomplish this, I made simple guidelines. For example, I decided to avoid high-fructose corn syrup. Just avoid HFCS, and you'll live a better life. And it worked for me. There was a little bit of work when reading labels, but that part was easy. The hard part was figuring out a good rule that makes sense for a given position in life. You can also view it as avoiding bullshit.

With pixels, I have found a way to make my art communication easier. It's a simplification that provides a stronger message. With this new outlook, I feel like I can face the day with a new outlook. I feel like I just hit the Reset button.

Thanks, Mom.
Thanks, Dad.

- Mr Benja -


Bonus Note:
I wrote this blog post and several others numerous times before deleting them many times over. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with what I was doing. Then I realized that the hosted Wordpress blog on my site was bugging me for quite a few reasons. I have now jumped over to Blogger to create a fresh start. Heck, I'm even using the free 'Simple' theme. It says so at the bottom of the page. 🙂