13/04/2022
Hiya.
I haven’t written a long caption on this page for a while but Apple showed me a picture today that took me wayyyy back. I’d like to use that picture to encourage someone here.
This first picture was taken in 2015. It was the second hardest year of my creative journey (2019 being the hardest so far). In this picture you see a giant paper flower. What you do not see is the story behind it.
The year before this, I had found someone abroad who made paper flowers almost exactly the way I liked them. Big and custom. I contacted her and commissioned her to create some for a wedding I was working on that year. In 2015, the dollar became a monster. I could no longer afford to do what I did in 2014.
I had a project coming that I knew I wanted giant flowers for, but I didn’t have the money to buy them and bring them in. Now let me pause to quickly explain. I don’t mean the regular paper flowers we see everywhere now. If you zoom into these you will see that these are hand painted flowers. No two petals are the same. Each vein on each flower is painted by hand. At the time, I couldn’t find anyone in Nigeria who did this. I was deeply discouraged. I looked everywhere until one day God said “look within.” I didn’t understand what He meant until He said “Call your brother.” And so I did. As soon as I explained what I wanted, when he heard he said “that’s easy. I’ll show you what to do”. I went to his studio and this first set of petals were created. It was the last time I even considered trying to buy flowers. My flowers have gotten bigger and better since that one studio lesson.
Why did I say all of that?
Sometimes, the one place we don’t look is “within”. If you have a dream that won’t go away, but everything around you looks bleak, chances are that your answer is within. If you don’t give up, if you dig past the tears and the pain and turn all of it into fuel for your fire, I guarantee you you will burn bright.
Blinding bright.
If this is for you, I see you. I salute you. Don’t stop.
You are doing well.
