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Challenge 104: If You Weren’t An Artist: Florist My last name is Bloom, so I always grew up thinking I should do something with flowers. Even though I may not have quite the green thumb necessary to be a professional florist or botanist, I certain love taking care of my numerous house plants. I daydream about what it would be like to work in a green house or a flower shop. I think working with living things every day would be so exiting! S.E. Bloom Website Instagram

Marc

Sayada

Stephanie Crane stephaniecraneart.com Instagram

Challenge 104: If You Weren’t An Artist: Underwater Archaeologist Honestly, I don’t know what I would do if I weren’t an artist; that’s pretty much been my goal since I was old enough to hold a pencil. But I also have a thing for shipwrecks, so the next best job would be an underwater archaeologist of some kind where I could explore sunken ships. I also thought that might lend itself to some nice textures and environment development in an illustration. This is the first time in a while that I have worked in black and white, and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. This has been the most fun I have had on a project recently, I may have to start working this way more often. James McInvale jamesmcinvaleillustration.com theinkyatlas.com

Challenge 104: If You Weren’t An Artist: Travel Blogger This one was tough for me! I’ve essentially always known that art was the path for me, never even saying that I wanted to be a ballerina, or an astronaut, or a vet when I was five years old, like most kids. The furthest I ever strayed from art was in 5th grade when I thought I wanted to be an author for a hot minute. During the crafting of my first novel, I quickly grew bored with the writing and irritated at the idea of continuing this self-imposed project. I was much more enthralled with drawing the characters from the book, and imagining all of their characteristics, down to the last detail. It finally dawned on me that what I liked about storytelling was the drawing the pictures... or, illustrating the book. My parents were always encouraging-- especially my mom, who is also an artist and actively inspired my brother and I to be creative. I never felt like I needed a backup plan. I even knew my college major before I held that high school diploma. Art is woven so intricately and thoroughly into my existence, it actually took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what else I truly enjoyed in life. The hobby inquiry on any sort of questionnaire was always hard for me, and I would answer “spending time with loved ones.” But... that isn’t a hobby. Enjoyable, sure. But not something I pursued as an individual, independent human with self-gratifying desires. For someone who knew themselves so unwaveringly in one regard, I was pretty lost in that way for a long time. But I’m so glad to have “found myself” that way in recent years. I released "me” from fitting into a preordained mold, and embraced parts of this personhood that I found silly, stupid or contradictory.  Among other things, I have indulged in my love of travel, and this is probably the hobby I see most fitting for a career, if I weren’t an artist. (It is next to impossible to imagine myself not having art as the focus of my life though, honestly).  If I were a travel blogger, I’d have to gain a good deal more bravery, but I do feel like I have the organizational skills to maintain a healthy and vibrant online persona. I’m creative (duh) which helps with the business and marketing aspect of being self-employed-- in that regard, it’s actually quite similar to freelancing. What would really be awesome (but breaking the rules of this prompt) is the idea of being a travel-blogger-illustrator-- we actually have one as a guest this challenge, which is incredibly inspiring to me!! Check out out Natasha’s stuff here. Caitlin

-Jordan J.