There was a time working at my old engineering job that I would go home, lay on the couch, roll over to sleep on my bed, and wake up the next day to do it all over again. 

I did everything I was supposed to do: good grades, good school, good career, good life. 

My parents were proud of me. I was making a lot of money. I was young. I was successful. But I wasn’t happy. 

All I wanted to do was art.

I loved painting and dancing and filming.

I loved running around screaming and singing with my friends, and making stupid videos. 

Half a year before I was scheduled to move from Washington to California, I was diving into interview prep for other engineering roles.

As I slogged through the beam bending diagrams and thermal dynamic equations, a large container of acrylic paint caught my eye. 

It was an unfinished can of this gritty sandy paste used to add texture to paintings. 

I thought - wow I loved playing with that texture when I painted.

Letting my mind drift, I wondered what else would be fun to create with that? Maybe - ooo an ocean floor? Like a sandy beach?

What would be the subject? Oh I love painting monochromatic animals lately. A whale? An octopus?

Oh my gosh and I can use the texture of the paste to play with the texture of the animals and the flow of the water in the ocean and blend the background and foreground together —