Proud to be in a Ted Talk #TEDxRCW

Like many, I have admired Ted.com. This is what the internet was made for: to bring forth great ideas that could be shared. (Their tagline is better!) I admire speakers that share insight in a funny or engaging way. In October, I was very honored and thankful that my visual expertise could help support experienced speaker Ranbir Puar at TEDxRCW.

Ranbir speaks to children about breathing in sunshine, to feel within you the magical light that can create, make your dreams come true, and exhaling that which interferes. To know that this light is your true being. It starts from your breath, at a cellular level. To know your life is to create and grow what you choose. To weed out what stops you from your life purpose. To keep breathing and nourishing yourself with your inner light. 

I understood this message. Being a creator, and also being someone with childhood fears. Could my style of paintings, my illustrations be suitable for a Ted talk? I have never been a great cartoonist as I have always given into the lusciousness of the medium. The dialogue you have with watercolor seeping into the paper, or the thick paint that is creamy, or moves where you didn’t expect it to. The smudges, the smears. My work has always been about the failure. Listening to it, and accepting it, so that it can inform your next stroke. Yet it is the layers of mistakes that give 70sNonchalance and Ucluelet dimension, atmosphere.

Yes, one breath at a time, I think I have moved on. I enjoy my own process. I now appreciate my mistakes, very very much. Thank you Ranbir for making a dream come true -- to contribute to a Ted talk -- a dream I didn't realize I had until today. If you had 18  minutes to inspire a community, What would be your idea worth sharing?