The Bread Crumbs
Essay Series: Introductions 3/8
Seven years ago, I was sitting on my mom’s squishy leather sofa surfing the internet. This doesn’t seem like such a fantastic scene, but I actually shouldn’t have been on that sofa surfing the internet at that time. One day a week, we weren’t allowed to go on the internet. I would, however, regularly break this rule by sneaking peeks at my phone and browsing different blogs, always on edge hoping that I wouldn’t get caught. Ah—the height of my teenage rebellion.
So while I was searching the interwebs, I happened across a video of an artist from New York drawing his breakfast bagel.
I clicked on it and was immediately drawn to the whimsical dark lines and beautiful vibrant colors with which he used to interpret the scene in front of him. It was all simple yet so stunning, a supposedly mundane setting transformed into one full of life.
As the video finished, I thought, “This looks like something I can do”. So I went out to buy my first watercolor set the next day.
I never thought this would be the path that I would go down because art as I knew it was rigid and impersonal; something someone created years ago, meant to be looked at from a distance. But it was thanks to one video that my course changed completely.
For six years, I followed the journey of this artist. I bought his books and became a part of his online community. It never occurred to me to directly to thank him; he was just too much of a unicorn in my head and I didn’t want to break the fourth wall.
It was only after buying a ticket for a spontaneous trip to New York in 2018 that sheepishly decided to message him. I asked if he would want to grab a cuppa after I landed for the first time in the Big Apple and to my pleasant surprise, he replied.
That day I woke up early and managed to find the cafe’ we decided on in the village. While I waited I sketched, chatted up the guy sitting next to me, twiddled my thumbs and got myself an apple crumble. For some reason I was nervous, but did my best to suppress my inner-fangirl.
In the middle of taking a bite out of my food, he walked in. I had only seen his photo at the back of books or over the screen, so it was a little surreal to see him in the flesh. But as we started chatting, all the unnecessary nerves vanished and I became a normal human again.
After a pleasant chat over coffee, he passed me his new book “Art Before Breakfast” before we left the coffee shop. I smiled at the synchronicity, thanked him, and went our separate ways.
This is one of my favorite memories.
It reminds me that you never know what can be the instigator for change. For me, it was following the breadcrumbs from one four-minute video to actual bagels in New York six years later. How incredible is that?
Or is it normal? I don’t know. But if something as simple as breakfast could change a life, then maybe there’s something in your day that is also waiting to be found.
Better check the dinner menu carefully just in case.
Otsukare and goodnight.
Hey lovelies. This is an 8-part series entitled “Introductions” that will slowly make its way to you over the next few months. I’m sharing some pieces of my life and how I started creating along with a little insight into the process for some current projects. Share your life with me too and enjoy the ride.
“And it is so simple...
You will instantly find how to live.”