Very VERY Vintage Paula Art
...and the Debut of My New Avatar!
In previous posts I’ve shared “vintage” art of mine; in that case “vintage” (with quotes) meant art I created six or seven years ago. Today I'm sharing some very VERY vintage art of mine—art I created as a child!
As you can see, my artistic talents surfaced early, as evidenced by this spot-on self-portrait I created in 2nd grade:
My masterpiece was simply labeled:
NAME: Paula Borchardt
GRADE: 2
MEDIA: Crayon
Yes, I did have a bright yellow cardigan and paisley(!) pants…and rest assured, I do have a nose, also. 😃
Here’s more of my art from 2nd grade…proof positive that dreams do come true!
Of course, it’s obvious what that green thing is that I drew (a.k.a. the “really good picture”), but just in case it’s not 100% clear to anyone, I’ll share what this is at the end of this post.
Fast forward a couple of years…when I was 9 years old my family took a road trip from our home in the Midwest to numerous national parks and cities in the West including Tucson! I was so fascinated with the Sonoran Desert that after that trip I designed this art of the Sonoran Desert, sewing thread onto a piece of card stock. I’m especially impressed with how accurate my big Tucson sun is!
My New Avatar!
🎺 Doot, do-do-DOOOOO! That’s the trumpet fanfare announcing the arrival of my new avatar! I decided a while ago (longer than I care to admit) that I wanted to create a new avatar that not only looks more like me but reflects my current art style. After lots of hard work, my new avatar is making its debut!
While I was designing my new avatar, I happened to be reading Rick Rubin’s book The Creative Act: A Way of Being & found it interesting to observe my avatar process through the lens of his observations on creativity.
In his book Rubin describes 4 steps in the creative process: Collecting Seeds (collecting, planting & watering ideas (“seeds”); Experimentation (“to see if we can get the seeds to take root and sprout a stem”); Crafting (“…building up [and] breaking down…through a pruning process”); and Completion.
I certainly collected, planted and watered tons of (avatar) seeds & then conducted lots of experiments on my seeds! I conducted so many experiments that I got bogged down in all my options until Hubby astutely pointed out that since I embrace minimalism in my art, my avatar should reflect that aesthetic as well. Wow, SPOT ON, Hubby!!! ❤️
Hubby’s observation totally resonated with me so I engaged in some serious pruning until I got to the point where I now I feel there’s not an extra color, line or dot I’d remove from my avatar!
One of the characteristics of any avatar is that it needs to be able to be understood at a very tiny size (on social media, phones, etc.). Here’s my avatar at only 50 pixels x 50 pixels and to my eyes, that’s a quick read!
I’m now proudly displaying my new avatar across the web—on my website, Mastodon, YouTube channel, Substack…
And now, to answer that burning question from above.
🧐 What Is that Green Thing I Drew in 2nd Grade?
My drawing shown in “Who I Would Like to Be” is a striped skunk—completely accurate I assure you!
How remarkable to see art from your early days! including your second grade self-portrait!!! I'm smiling as I look at the thoughtful, accurate (tho' I guessed striped chipmunk, not skunk), common thread running through your earliest days to your present visual expressions and avatar. If I saw them somewhere else, I'd guess they are a Paula Borchardt.
Congrats! Avatars are hard...hence why I defaulted to a symbol by someone else!