Students participated in the 2024 Save the Frogs Contest again this year. This contest is held to protect frogs and their habitats, which are endangered due to climate change and environmental destruction. Many children from all over the world, experts, and scholars who want to protect frogs are participating in this movement. Above all, the annual art contest is a great opportunity for children to learn to love and protect the small creatures around them. This year, students drew another type of picture with their own novel ideas and colors.

When teaching children to draw, you will find that their drawings start out flat and gradually become three-dimensional. They must naturally go through this stage to acquire high-level drawing skills. However, if they lose or do not get this opportunity for some reason, they will experience frustration with drawing after the age of 11. They will think that they have no talent and can no longer draw.

 According to Lowenfeld's stages, *Emerging*Expertise*Stage is a very important period in art education that determines whether or not they will have professional skills in the future. According to the research journal of the stage (Blueprint/Young in Art), elementary school students lose interest or become overly critical of their own work at this stage because they do not meet the demands of technical development and level.

So as an art teacher, I do my best to help children avoid this frustration. In this sense, one of my students, Daniel, has finally taken a leap from this mold. Below is a new drawing that Daniel has drawn. Through this drawing, he has found joy in expressing how to express the beauty of things in a three-dimensional and vivid way.

When students reach this stage, they start to look at their own paintings for a long time and enjoy them. They look at their paintings as if they were going on a trip and wanting to take pictures of beautiful scenery. This stage is rewarding for me as a teacher because the subsequent artistic depictions become easier. It will run like an analog boat with a motor. And the students will be amazed at their own accomplishments at this stage. And they will find out more and more how much fun it is to draw.

I recently started working as an art teacher at SchoolNova, a children's enrichment program in my area. It is a great opportunity for me because my child also needs to learn math there. Above all, I want the children to dive deep into the world of these paintings and become artists for their entire lives. It doesn't matter what the students become. We are all artists after all.

​As we live, we experience ups and downs like a roller coaster. Just as flowers bloom and fall repeatedly, our lives fill up and then disappear, and when they seem completely empty, they slowly fill up. And when life feels dark and hopeless as if we have hit rock bottom, no matter how much we try to squeeze out, we strangely cannot think of positive and hopeful thoughts. The same goes for when everything is going well and we are happy. When we become arrogant and have difficulties around us, we arrogantly evaluate and ignore them as if they are lazy or have done something wrong. In this way, humans and human life sometimes go round and round in vain, without depth and without recklessness.

What if you are standing in the middle of a dark tunnel in life? Strangely enough, there is no one by your side at such times. Even when you try to approach someone with a loving heart, the other person feels burdened by you. Even well-intentioned words are twisted and conveyed. It may feel like everyone is plotting to criticize you, gossip behind your back, and discourage you. At that time, you feel all the energy drained from your body and you feel helpless, as if you can’t walk a single step anymore. I also had a time when anything I said would get messed up. At that time, even sincere gifts would be ignored. I think anyone who has been through the bottom of life would know what this means. If you continue to feel wronged, not understood, and not loved, how deep would that darkness be? How great would it be if someone lit a light in your dark heart at that time? If you were standing in the middle of a tunnel, unable to go back and looking ahead, the darkness would continue, how grateful would you be if someone told you that if you just went a little further, you would see a bright light? Can we still expect this kind of warmth in this world? In fact, my blog was like a long journey in search of this kind of warmth in a bleak life.

The topic of my blog at first was ‘What is art?’ Why do artists choose a path that is vague, not guaranteed to succeed, and requires them to constantly create themselves? What is art to me? I wrote every day while asking myself these questions. This task was like hitting a racquetball against a wall. Every time I hit, it always came back to me. This ball was not a catch ball that someone would gently catch and pass back to me with a smile. When I threw it hard, it flew hard, and when I threw it softly, it came softly. Time passed as if I was talking to myself against a wall that had no emotions. When the number of visitors to my blog gradually increased, I was the first to receive advertisements and spam. They were very diligent and surprised me by leaving comments on my blog from early in the morning. Deleting these posts became a routine for me. Then one day, I got burnt out and couldn’t find any material. At that time, I couldn’t even move forward with my drawings and was in a slump. It was a moment when everything I did felt meaningless. Everyone else was successful in drawing and writing and posting success stories, but why wasn’t anything easy for me? I wanted to give up everything in despair.

But then I saw a $1 watercolor paint that my child had placed on my desk. Feeling frustrated, I drew a small candle. It was as if my dark heart was waiting for the light to come out. But when I focused and drew and looked at the candles I drew, I felt a bright energy welling up from somewhere in my heart. Suddenly, my heart became bright. At that moment, I realized that I had overcome my slump. And to convey this energy, I wrote and drew again. My daily life went on like that for several years.

Thankfully, I am an artist who sells paintings well. In fact, it is more natural that I cannot sell paintings. The art market is harsh and the standards of art lovers are very high. No one would pay a high price for a piece of paper covered in paint. But people do buy paintings. They give up buying a new cell phone, a handbag, or a fancy dress to buy paintings. I feel deeply grateful whenever visitors buy my paintings.

My wish as an artist is that my reputation will continue to grow so that people who buy my paintings will become rich because of my paintings. This is as important to artists as their reputation. That is why I work hard every day as an artist. I practice, invent techniques, and paint every day to meet people’s high standards and surpass myself.

The artist I love and want to be like the most is Cezanne. I like his style of life more than his style of painting. That is because when his fame as an artist peaked, he abandoned everything and went into the mountains. He devoted 35 years of his life on Mont Sainte-Victoire to finding true art. Why? People already knew how successful he was. He must have known that he was a successful painter in Paris and that he could live off this fame for the rest of his life. But he set out on a long journey to find the 'essence of beauty'. That was more important than his fame.

Artists devote their lives to finding this essence of beauty. When they see something, they study what makes it beautiful. And when they capture it properly, the painting becomes a work of art on paper and takes on new life. And when they feel this life, art lovers willingly open their wallets. Because they know well that at this time, the painting is not just an object, but a living being with good energy.

Therefore, artists are people who sell energy. We know well how much comfort and vitality a good painting gives when it hangs on a wall. And we know well how empty and cold the space feels when a painting that has been hanging for a long time disappears. Therefore, I sincerely hope that art lovers will purchase such warm paintings.

When artists paint, they are placed in many coincidences that they are not aware of. In fact, there are more things that are unintentional than intentional in paintings. Honest artists will admit that their paintings are more beyond their talent or ability. That is why I also believe that just as artists paint in coincidence, paintings also have their own fateful owners. And when my paintings meet such owners, I feel relieved as if I have finished my homework.

One day, the price of my paintings will skyrocket beyond my expectations. I know very well that that day will come. However, I will not be lazy in traveling in search of the essence of art in this art market like Cezanne. This will be a strong sense of responsibility and mission that I can show to the many customers who buy my paintings. That is why I truly enjoy my daily journey.

"Happy Monday! I wanted to let you know that the article you participated in is now live on the Rent. blog! You can see the post here: [Creative Hobbies to Do at Home]" 

I recently received an email from Cam Hayes, a writer on the content team at Redfin, a national real estate company. She is currently working on an article for Rent. (a subsidiary of Redfin), highlighting the best hobbies to do at home to bring out your creativity. This valuable encounter led to an email from me that featured two of my projects.

I get a lot of suggestions from various sources while blogging. But this suggestion was a meaningful and enjoyable experience for me. Because Cam is a person who does her best to write the best articles, is professional, and is full of passion. I have never met her in person, but I think I can tell how much she does her best in her work. You can read the article that was born with such a genuine heart through the article link below. I recommend you read it slowly and carefully. There are many useful tips that will help you.

https://www.rent.com/blog/hobbies-to-do-at-home/

Most of us start and end everything at home. If your life at home is messy, unfulfilling, and full of depression and dissatisfaction, it would be really sad. If you live a fulfilling and vibrant life in your own space, this energy will shine even when you are seen from outside. Above all, your work at home is a good sign that tells you how much you love and cherish yourself.

My one-day one-art and shared art table were born for our own happy day at home. I personally think that people like Cam who know such trivial but very crucial truths and actively try to share tips are true artists. In this sense, I am not only happy that my thoughts or ideas are posted on a site visited by millions of people, but I am even more encouraged by the fact that there are people who do such meaningful work.

In fact, I have been tempted to quit blogging many times while posting on my blog for a long time. Sometimes I received spam, and I had to repeatedly delete unhealthy posts. Sometimes the number of visitors decreased drastically, and I had to find out the reason. And there were times when I worried because I didn’t know if my posts were authentic or factual. Blogging was like a lonely fight. It was like the movie Life of Pi, where the boy who survived a severe storm and the Bengal tiger Richard Parker were together. I was a blogger who felt threatened for my survival in the vast ocean of the Internet and had to constantly find good material to post.

I realized that the only person who listened to me was the growling tiger, and that my daily work was a lonely fight of my own. After writing every day for about 3 years, I ran out of material and couldn't even think of anything. However, fortunately, the material of finding the authenticity of art in everyday life and informing people about my artistic activities continued to create content. And at some point, good fruits began to form in this meaningful work. This is because of the efforts I make in my daily life. And these meaningful activities every day are done right in your home.

I am truly happy to be in the same boat as people who know this truth. As I told Cam, my work will continue to gain strength and my artistic activities in everyday life will not stop.

​This experience was actually a good opportunity to see up close how large blogs and articles with a lot of traffic are produced. And I learned that in order to create such content, the producers work harder and more intensely to research, request, and sometimes worry. And I learned that the content created in this way can truly create a response that can change our surroundings. In other words, I learned that ideas created honestly based on real experiences are properly reflected. Therefore, it was a good opportunity for me to think about how I should create content as an artist and sometimes as a blogger. Good content has the power to change lives. I also know the power of such content well, and sometimes I have been greatly helped by it. For example, when I was worried about going to graduate school, a blogger's article was very helpful, and I was able to make a wiser career choice. I hope that my article can also be of great help to someone like that blogger's article.