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Hi! Aley here \ud83d\ude42 I've had the pleasure of gaining some new followers recently and thought I'd say \ud83d\udc4b and introduce myself. I'm an illustrator from San Francisco, and I also grew up in Sydney (I'm half Aussie). 4 years ago I quit my full time design gig in SF to travel and volunteer, and since then I've worked on mushroom farms in Peru, horse ranches in Oaxaca, permaculture gardens in Portugal, homesteads in Transylvania, guesthouses In Turkey, festivals in Croatia, greenhouses in Sardinia, etc. I went wild and free and wasn't sure what I wanted to do career-wise. It felt good to not know. I studied illustration but never took myself seriously enough to pursue it with all my power and might. For many years I believed that I simply wasn't very talented. In mid 2018, I spent 9 days in silent meditation in Poland, and I sat with the idea of letting visual art go. It was then that I realized that illustration is my true passion and calling. Since that moment I've been hungrily developing my skills and style, and I'm so grateful for this vocation and the privilege of being able to pursue it. Traveling gave me many things: new perspectives, language, radical self-love, many amazing friends, joy, and a life path that gently revealed itself when I looked inwards. Freelance illustration is not for the faint of heart. It's hard, but for those who love it more than any other thing, it's worth it.\ud83c\udf3b\ud83d\udc99\ud83c\udf3b\ud83d\udc99\ud83c\udf3b\ud83d\udc99\ud83c\udf3b\ud83d\udc99\ud83c\udf3b\ud83d\udc99
A post shared by aley hanson (@aley.wild) on Feb 28, 2020 at 6:27am PST