I’m A Bad Artist And A Terrible Chef

Around 2019, I made a choice. I decided to take my casual sketching and character design habit and see if I could turn it into something full-time. I wanted to paint in a way that could resonate with people, create characters they’d feel connected to. So, I gave it a shot.

Back then, I was living in England, and I had no clue what I was doing. I’d literally take these A4 canvas panels to the park and try to sell them. One day, a guy actually bought one for £20. That small exchange meant a lot. He told me to “just keep pushing,” and that bit of encouragement kept me going for a while.

After that, I started posting my work more seriously on Instagram. To my surprise, people actually started engaging with it. For the first time, people were seeing me as an artist. They saw me that way even when I didn’t see myself that way. And honestly, I still don’t. Art supplies aren’t cheap, and I’m nowhere near where I want to be. I only paint when I can afford it. Sometimes, I wonder if I even deserve to call myself an artist if I’m not in it full-time.

That’s part of the reason I ended up in culinary school. It wasn’t that I gave up on art. I just realized that I needed a steady income to fund my creative side. Culinary school felt like a more stable path, and maybe, after years in the kitchen, I could build up enough security to fund both dreams. But now, here I am, months away from graduating, and I’m already questioning if I’ll feel ready to call myself a chef.

It’s complicated. Being a chef is about more than just loving to cook. It’s a technical skill that requires time and dedication. I know I’ve got a lot to learn, and while I don’t feel like I’m there yet, I’m determined to keep going. I may be a terrible chef now, but I know I can get better. Just like with art, it’s going to take time.

So where do I go from here? Ideally, I’d like to keep both passions alive while seeing the world. Someday, I hope to become an executive chef at a small restaurant, the kind I can pour myself into and build from the ground up. At the same time, I want people to know my art, maybe even buy it. That’s the dream—to keep both fires burning and see where they take me.