Art Infliction’s beginning is essentially the life story of its owner, Steve Kaycee.
A man of many memories and various interests, Steve had aspirations of turning all of that into a career, only to struggle identifying how he could transfer all of that to the working world, along with having a friend that gave him a false sense of security.
The struggle and false sense of security prompted Steve to take the traditional job route, by working three entry level jobs for three separate companies in a span of almost 11 years (2003 through 2014) just to be productive.
However, the dream never died, due to Steve staying true to both his memories and various interests during that almost 11-year period, with the latter stages of that period being some of the most crucial in Steve’s life.
The latter stages began in late 2011, with re-dedicating Steve himself to writing. And they continued in 2012, with him becoming inspired to paint designs on rocks after noticing a Full-Body Bunny Rabbit Painted Rock one day while watching the Kurt Russell movie “Used Cars”.
Feeling a rebirth in his creativity, Steve became a painting machine for a good portion of 2012, along having an inclination of blending that creativity with his re-dedication to writing. However, he remained hesitant about leaving the traditional job route, as he still wasn’t privy to a lot of the ways that one could successfully bet on himself or herself in the working world, along with the fact that he was still saddled with that false sense of security. But then early 2013 happened.
Feeling both bored and maxed out with his day job at that time, Steve decided to move on to something that was more intriguing and was constantly making moves to get into such a situation. And just when everyone seemed to be on his side with all the moves that he was making, that so-called friend doubted him at a time when he needed that so-called friend’s support during that particular time of his life.
During that particular timeframe (mid-February 2013) of being doubted, Steve tried to convince that so-called friend that he could achieve his goal of moving on to something more intriguing, only for that so-called friend to keep countering with why he could never achieve that goal.
But armed with both constant dedication and literally the first (Chinese Kanji Determination) of many tattoos, Steve was not going to not let betrayal deter him from his goal nor he would no longer let his energy be sapped by that so-called friend, so in a move that was a long time coming, he ended his friendship with that so-called friend. One hurdle cleared.
However, another hurdle remained, which was his day job at that time. And with little to no progress in achieving his goal via continuing the traditional job route, Steve decided that it was time to do something that made him happy.
That time was 2014 when the combination of constantly feeling burned out and constantly putting his health at risk made Steve finally put in his notice of resignation on May 13 of that year. His last day at that job would be 15 days after that.
Now a “free agent”, Steve spent most of his time trying to find something that would give him purpose, along with a good work-life balance, only to discover that such a thing didn’t exist, so he instead had to create it.
Creation would take form in September 2014, with Steve writing a yet-to-be recovered entry about how that Full-Bodied Bunny Rabbit Painted Rock inspired him, along with getting the platform to post that entry.
However, the direction was far from structured, as Steve was both sporadic with his blogging and short on methods in giving the audience a lot to see, so he went back to the drawing board, and returned savvier and way more creative than ever before.
The return has paid off big time, with the fruition of Steve’s emphasis on meshing the content, storefronts and ideas of many other people with the aspirations that he has since successfully transferred to the working world. He proudly calls those many other people his teammates.
Together with his teammates, Steve aims to bring you something that can hopefully inspire you, whether it’s via rekindling a passion or starting a new one to the point that you can also head in the right direction professionally.
It took him almost eleven full years to finally fully dedicate himself to something that he loves. And to those of you reading this, he genuinely hopes that such a situation takes way less time for you than it did for him.
It’s never too late to achieve. Especially when you believe.
Keep progressing!
