The Courage to Just Wannabe An Artist

When I look out at all of your faces today—artists, collectors, dreamers, people who simply see—I feel a lump in my throat that I can barely swallow. Because International Artist Day is a celebration, yes, but for me, it is also a powerful, painful remembrance of the path taken. And I have to confess: I stand here, still trembling, still feeling the weight of the little boy who whispered his dream, "I just wanna be an artist."

My name, IJWBAA, is not a grand statement; it is a confession. "I Just Wannabe An Artist." It is the constant fear that lived inside me. The fear that said, "You are an IT specialist. Art is a hobby. Art is too risky. Art will not feed your family. Art is not what your culture expects of you." That fear was not a whisper; it was a loud, demanding voice, drowning out the color and the light.

Every piece of art I put out—every elongated figure, every stark, minimalist exploration of Filipino identity—comes from a place of radical vulnerability. When you show the world your art, you are tearing open your chest and asking, “Do you see me? Do you see my history? Do you see the pieces of myself I had to fight to keep?” I know that fear of rejection, that anxiety that your deepest, most honest work will be met with silence, or worse, with dismissal.

And yet, here we are. We are here because art is not a choice; it is a necessity. It is the only language strong enough to reclaim our stories. It is the only way to take our history, our ancestral memory—our Manananggal, our resilience, our beautiful, complex family bonds—and put them into a frame that demands to be seen by the modern world.

Today, I’m not celebrating the awards, or the exhibitions, or the archives. I'm celebrating the raw, breathtaking courage it takes to overcome that fear every single day. I'm celebrating you, the artist working unseen in their room right now, arguing with that voice of doubt.

This day is not just for the icons. It is for the heart that still aches to create, the hands that still shake when they sign their name.

If you are struggling right now, if you feel that fear creeping in, please, let the tears come. Let the fear be a compass. It is only because you care so deeply that you are afraid to fail.

Let us all promise to let our art be bigger than our fear. Let us be brave, let us be honest, and let us stand together, finally able to say, not as a whisper, but as a roar: "We are artists."

To every single artist in the world, Happy International Artist Day. May you create fearlessly.

SO, WHAT'S NEXT?

Hi, I'm Pao aka IJWBAA. I'm a digital artist, painter, and a book author from the Philippines. If you enjoyed reading this you might like to read also:

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Thank you.