Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
2023
5 × 7 in.
Watercolor on Paper
A character sits with a video game controller in his hands, completely absorbed in the world in front of him. For a long time, that was me.
I used to spend a huge amount of my free time playing video games. I loved them, and part of me probably always will. They gave me somewhere else to go for a few hours, another world to disappear into. But eventually, I started changing how I wanted to spend my life.
I reinvented myself and started painting.
Once I started creating, I realized something incredibly simple: I didn't have enough time for everything. Every hour I spent playing a game was an hour I wasn't painting, drawing, coming up with an idea, learning something new, skating, or actually making the things I wanted to exist.
It wasn't that video games suddenly became meaningless. I just discovered something that meant more to me.
There is a big difference between entering a world somebody else created and realizing that you can create a world yourself. Painting gave me that. Instead of picking up a controller to escape reality, I could pick up a brush and create my own version of it.
That's why this painting isn't really a criticism of gaming. It's a portrait of an older version of myself. I can still recognize that person because he is still part of me. I just eventually had to decide what deserved my time.
Out of Time is about realizing that reinventing yourself sometimes means giving up things you genuinely enjoy to make room for the things you discover you love even more.
I didn't stop playing because I stopped loving video games. I stopped because I found something I wanted to create more than I wanted to play.
2023
5 × 7 in.
Watercolor on Paper
A character sits with a video game controller in his hands, completely absorbed in the world in front of him. For a long time, that was me.
I used to spend a huge amount of my free time playing video games. I loved them, and part of me probably always will. They gave me somewhere else to go for a few hours, another world to disappear into. But eventually, I started changing how I wanted to spend my life.
I reinvented myself and started painting.
Once I started creating, I realized something incredibly simple: I didn't have enough time for everything. Every hour I spent playing a game was an hour I wasn't painting, drawing, coming up with an idea, learning something new, skating, or actually making the things I wanted to exist.
It wasn't that video games suddenly became meaningless. I just discovered something that meant more to me.
There is a big difference between entering a world somebody else created and realizing that you can create a world yourself. Painting gave me that. Instead of picking up a controller to escape reality, I could pick up a brush and create my own version of it.
That's why this painting isn't really a criticism of gaming. It's a portrait of an older version of myself. I can still recognize that person because he is still part of me. I just eventually had to decide what deserved my time.
Out of Time is about realizing that reinventing yourself sometimes means giving up things you genuinely enjoy to make room for the things you discover you love even more.
I didn't stop playing because I stopped loving video games. I stopped because I found something I wanted to create more than I wanted to play.