Suleika Jaouad

It is.

Right?

What a beautiful thing.

The mess is where the intrigue is.

It's where the interesting stuff lives, and you push further into that, and it ends up becoming the most beautiful part of the canvas often.

Right.

And I think that's why I've been so drawn to journaling my entire life because it is this low stakes private container that's not for public consumption.

That's not about being a good writer or a good drawer.

It's just about pure expression.

Yeah.

And it doesn't have to be grammatical writing.

You don't have to be a trained artist.

It's just about enjoying the process.

And I think it's so hard to do that, especially as we get older.

And especially in a culture that is obsessed with productivity and a specific definition of success.

And so for me to start painting at 33, I wanted...

in that time in my life to have something that wasn't about being good and to have the permission to be a bad artist and to make something without a goal in mind, but to do it with rigor.

When I started painting more intensely, I had this opportunity two summers ago to have an exhibit.

It was actually a joint exhibit with my mom, and it was called The Alchemy of Blood.

And the head of the museum asked me if I wanted to sell my paintings, and I thought about it.