Yesterday I wrote my birthday post and @perennial also did a shout-out for me in his post Steem Cartoon : Finding Strength in my Community. I would like to use this opportunity to extend my sincerest thanks to him for his kind gesture. He highlighted a fundraising effort I did for a fellow coloring book artists who is currently suffering from the final stage of colon cancer. Here is a quote from @perennial 's post...
Thank you for being an awesome human being. You show to us all that you don't need much to be a generous human. All you need is a big heart and a lot of love. We are proud to call you one of us.
Now, I do not write this post to self-praise or toot my own's horn, telling the whole world how awesome I am! No, not at all!
I am grateful for the shout-out and the birthday wishes but it got me thinking. Sure, it's true that I extended help to several people on Steemit/outside of Steemit in the past. And I did it because I wanted to. Because I felt I have the power to help, no matter how small my contributions were. I honestly did not do it to gain followers or admirations from others. In fact, it never crossed my mind to boast about my good deeds.
The inspiration
I don't mean this to be a religious post but I am including this Bible verse because it inspires this painting and also it inspires me to spread kindness to others.
"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere." ~ James 3: 13-17 NIV
This scripture verse is my personal "theme" verse for 2018. The verse is self-explanatory but I would like to highlight this sentence - "For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." Let me stress again that I am not trying to preach or telling people I am holier-than-thou. Those who are close to me know what kind of person I am. My husband @voltranrex knows me 99%. He knows how volatile my mood is, I can be very friendly one moment and very cold the next moment. I can be very helpful and self-sacrificing but he knows how I complain about people behind their back. Because of my weaknesses, that is why I try to examine my motives on why I do certain things. What is my motive for helping people? I might sincerely want to help but if I am not careful, it could be also because I harbor "envy and selfish ambition" deep within my heart. Maybe I envy someone who does more good deeds than I do, so not to be outdone, I try to do the same. Maybe I have a selfish ambition to "build a pleasing reputation". A hypocrite. If I secretly have those motives in my heart, I am pretty sure something negative would happen like I would become greedy, ruthless, critical, judgmental. All these things would affect not just me but those I interact with.
The painting
Can you see a face in that painting? An evil face? It is a face of someone who is grinning maliciously. I painted that face to represents the "evil" part of every human beings. This is the part that is often not shown to the world. It probably stays hidden because we disguise it so well with our good deeds. For example, maybe I am generous in helping others because (secretly) I am a greedy person and I want to hoard all the rewards and recognition for myself. To the naked eye, I might appear to be a self-sacrificing person but deep within I am just as evil as anyone else. I used "we" in my sentences because whether we like it or not all of us do have that evil part that no one wants to admit.
This painting is painted in acrylics and it is my first acrylic painting for 2018. The background is painted in black and subsequent layers were painted in violet, blue, vermillion, and green.
The progress photos
Thank you for visiting! What do you think of this painting? Please leave your comments below.
My previous posts:
A Year Younger | Today Is My Birthday!
Preliminary Sketch Of A New Portrait
A Trip To The National Planetarium
Gong Xi Fa Cai | Wishing All Chinese Steemians A Happy Chinese New Year
Valentine's Day | On Falling In Love
I am selling some of my paintings over on Artfinder. Shipping is FREE worldwide. You can check them out here: ARTFINDER.
My gifts & merchandise available at REDBUBBLE (international), Printcious & CreativeUnited (Malaysia).
Thank you!
