Today, I would like to introduce a book called. The Hungry Caterpillar", a famous children's book that every library in the United States must have. The reason I would like to introduce this book is personally because of the beautiful illustrations and drawings in the book. I felt the energy in this book, not only as a children's book, but also as a work of art.

  ​And the biggest reason is that in the school class of the daughter who is now 6 years old, the parents of the birthday child visit the class to read a book or sing a happy birthday song together. My daughter asked me to read this book. As a foreigner and not a native speaker, I was given a burdensome homework assignment. But since my daughter is asking for it, such difficulties do not come very close. I decided to practice my pronunciation and learn about the book.

  ​But the moment I read this book, the burden gradually disappeared. Because the illustrations in the book were so beautiful and deep. The content was very simple, but the color and brushstrokes made a big impression on me.

  ​The book begins as follows for the sake of her sister Christina.

  The plot is very simple. The butterfly's eggs lie on the leaf during the night, then transform into a caterpillar in the warm sunlight.

  ​And the caterpillars soon begin to look for food.

  ​This book was discovered a little late for my daughter who can read and write numbers, but I think it is a good book for 3-year-old children who are interested in reading and have a concept of numbers. This is a passage where you can see how much the author loves children and made books from their eyes and levels. Counting is something adults naturally teach children.

  ​In particular, these caterpillars eat different numbers of different kinds of fruit on different days of the week. So it's great for kids to learn the names of fruits and the concept of counting and days of the week.

  ​Even after eating this fruit, the caterpillar is still hungry. So he eats the following foods. These are foods that children do not usually give to children because they are concerned about their health.

  Eventually, the caterpillar will have an upset stomach. He has to eat his own food the next day, the leaves.

  ​Then the caterpillar felt a little more comfortable. As time passed, he was no longer a hungry caterpillar.

  ​The caterpillar pupates to prepare it to become a butterfly.  And in the end it turned into a beautiful butterfly.

  ​I bought a caterpillar doll to make it more fun to read to children.

 ​When you open the zipper, you will see a butterfly as shown below.

 ​Carefully take it out and turn it over to become a butterfly.

  Eric Carle (June 25, 1929 – May 23, 2021) was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. His picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. 

  As shown below, he applied acrylic on a large piece of paper with a broom and drew a picture at once.

  ​Paint the pattern by hand as above and cut out the shape to make the caterpillar like a collage.

  ​When I look at the work of the now deceased Eric Carle, I still feel his tremendous energy.

  ​Below is a selection of my favorite paintings from among his works.

  Painting was his best friend for the rest of his life for him, who went to America with only $40. He also overcame the post-traumatic stress that he had been with for the rest of his life through painting. If you look at his innocent, beautiful and hopeful paintings, you can understand what message he is sending to the world.

  When I started posting with the goal of a steady blog 2021, I was worried that I might have set a simple plan. But after six months, I realized that it was a useless worry because blogging has lots of hardships to create something new every day. In the case of blogging, 80% of first bloggers give up within six months.  It means that most bloggers quit within their first six months. The reasons are that they don't make any rewards, don't get traffic, comments, response or shares. And if it lasts more than a year, that's great.  

  ​I've been aiming for steady blogging and drawing here. Thinking about it now, I realize that it was such a grand goal. I have created a blog and info menu and have been posting every day in turn. In other words, the article is uploaded every other day for each menu.

  ​ I am well aware that consistency is my greatest strength.  When I was in elementary school, a teacher motivated me for consistency and helped me understand what consistency is and why it is crucial.

 During her class, I had homework to write a picture diary. I worked hard to write a diary  day by day. I still remember those bundles. There were seven volumes in all, and I glued to tie it for one buddle. One day after the year was over, and my teacher showed our classmates the picture diary and said. "It's harder to be consistent than good at it." Since then, that saying has become my life's motto. So I've liked doing something consistently rather than being good at something.

  But doing something consistently is not easy. In that case, I have a motivated book. It is "a day by Ivan Denisovich", written by Solzhenitsyn. This book is just a description of the day in 1951 when the protagonist, Shhoff, an ordinary farmer, was transferred to a concentration camp as a spy. Solzhenitsyn described Schhof's daily routine from waking up at 5 in the morning to going to sleep.

 ​As usual, Schuhoff wakes up at 5 in the morning. He goes to the infirmary to avoid work, but the infirmary's garden is already full, and he has to go out to work. The task was to build the house and roof of the power plant. Schuhoff got two bowls of Chezary's soup as his share in exchange for his small errands. He fall asleep thinking it's a lucky day, feeling satisfied.

​ However, the novel is the first to expose the reality of the Soviet concentration camps and how the concentration camps were operated. I was deeply moved by Solzhenitsyn's simple explanation of Schhof's day. Rather than describing life in an extreme concentration camp as despair, revenge, and melancholy, he enjoys concentrating on the process, such as the process of work, distribution, and eating of bread. He completes the day's mission diligently and returns to his dorm with energy. I was particularly struck by the fact that a day equals the length of a book. How can a day be split up into so many good bits! And I found out that it was right in the attitude of the main character's day. Had the protagonist been discouraged in advance, knowing that life in the camp would last the rest of his life, he would have lived in that environment rebellious, depressed, or harassing others.

​ But he knew that life itself was a process and that no one could measure it and dare not speak of the outcome. He was just trying to enjoy the process somehow. His day is full of the great spirit and motivation he has created for himself. In other words, when you eat a piece of bread, you eat it with good taste, like a kind of ritual.

 Through the novel, I experienced the importance of giving meaning to one's own life. In fact, these bold descriptions were very helpful in exposing the horrors of the camps at the time.

 ​The time of a day can be split into meaningful moments depending on how you enjoy it and give some significance to endure boredness. So, if you give meaning to your daily actions one by one and enjoy them to the fullest, it will be conducive to keeping things consistent. 

I wake up in the morning, take a 30-minute walk, come home, drink coffee, and sit right in front of the computer. And as soon as I sit on my desk, blog about art and related painting. Above all, it gives meaning to this behavior from various angles. When I have no motivation, I do the things on my tablet with an illustrator I want to do the most, the fun stuff. I like to draw small and compact illustrations. Because there is no stress. 

When I am in a good mood, full of energy, and overflowing with ideas, I collect and save some articles I have written for the future. It is good for preventing posts from being pushed back when you are under pressure.

And if the consistency keeps going on the blog, I reward myself. At this time, you decide on the reward list yourself. Buying me flowers, drinking Starbucks coffee, whatever. Your work will come to you as fun rather than a result if you do this. And you'll be able to keep the fun you had the first time.

When I moved to the long island from Germany in 2013, I felt my next step was vague. I didn't know about the factual American artistic circumstances. Thus I needed a more active trigger to get real-world advice such as filing taxes, building careers, worksheets, and getting health insurance. Fortunately, I found the book(The successful Artist's career guide by Margaret Peot, Northlights books) for everything that it contains artist's interviews. Therefore, I recommend you if you want to make your career in advance or shape your daily life into a work of art.