HairyProblems

Grew up in a small town, in a seemingly insignificant country.

While the city was rising from the ashes after the Bosnian war of 1995, I was taking my first steps. Once I got to know the world, it was time to move on. But where?

I spent days with friends on a nearby lake eating the unbaked corn, green apples, and going to the first parties. A carefree childhood in the region that was everything but that.

When I reached the time to leave childhood, the nagging question from the beginning arose up once again. Only, this time I knew what I DON'T WANT to do. I didn’t want to follow the beaten trails of those whose paths lead abroad in the endless race for money. To hate Monday and waste my energy on energy vampires ideas.

I naively chose to revive my own.

It was not easy to quit a "safe job" and proceed into the unknown. It was not easy to perform on street at -11 °C in Gospodska Street that cold February 2017. The strings were cutting deep in the flesh as passers-by marked me under their eyes. It was not easy after putting the guitar in the corner of the small apartment to start a new tutorial with unknown lessons and study over again. It was not easy proving to my parents that I can achieve the path to financial independence in MY WAY!

With a pencil! Hey, as an illustrator!

And now, the road brought me here. Every minute of stepping forward was worth the fight. I will continue to use my pencil and burst through this pile of beliefs of the people around me. Destroy their ideas that say one can only succeed by working in certain professions. And if you are an artist, you are doomed to be misunderstood, manipulated and ignored. To paint on canvas in the basement of some dilapidated house while, in addition to a permanent job, you draw "something for yourself" as a hobby.

In a country that does not like diversity, where different perspectives have merged with the fear of social condemnation, I will, despite all odds, live my story as a financially independent and happy illustrator.

Inside or outside of it.