Experience has taught me a Lot.

For example,  I may or may not actively like some of the people I draw, upon meeting them.  They may or may not like me, my work, or even know what to make of what I'm trying to do here.  That's their right, and that's my right.  That doesn't change the love that I put into my work, capturing what I see and feel of each person I've drawn.

It doesn't change the realization that I have no right to judge these people's appearance based on the standards of my own lifestyle.  I have a right to my feelings, but I don't have to act on them or even let them dominate my thinking. This is a very refreshing realization that I wouldn't have been able to  have ten years earlier.  Such a thought has the potential to take a great burden off of many of our shoulders, if we're really open to it.  Why get angry at someone else for having a different story than my own? They haven't punched me in the face, or even said a word in my direction.

There is something incredibly interesting about the photos I draw that were taken in plane view of the subject. You get a different range of energies--joyful performer, defiant, pissed off, and..proud. In moments of my own life I've shared center stage, as well.