So I felt like talking about my role models and idols, but I want to divide it up so I can give each person their own post.
First up is an artist. A concept designer/illustrator/storyboarder/matte painter to be more specific. He works at Pixar and is one of my most favorite people in the world, and his name is Paul Topolos.
One day in the summer of 2010 in Malaysia, I was trying to entertain myself with some newspapers while I sat in my grandparents' living room. My siblings had gone out without me, as they usually do, so I read the newspaper until I reached the ad section. I never skip the ads, because I always criticize the design and concept, and that's when I saw the ad for a lecture series hosted by a Malaysian university. When I read more, I found out it was about Pixar and they would have 8 Pixarians speak at the lecture series, taking up three days of summer. And because I was completely broke, I asked my mom if she could pay for me, and I broke down the amount of money and told her how I never went out or did anything and that she should help me go. And so she agreed and yea:
I really wanted to meet him, and I had a question I really needed to ask him. He had been really confident when speaking on stage, and his work is so beautiful and amazing, and he was hilarious and I wanted to know where all that confidence and humbleness was coming from. So I asked him: "Do you ever doubt yourself?" And he looked back at me, and said: "All the time."
He went on to explain that he does it because it makes him better, it makes him push himself and work harder. He said that he didn't actually like anything he had produced, he'd always think it could be better somehow.
This was probably a turning point in my life. I really sincerely believed that once you got up there, and was so amazing at your work, that you'd KNOW you were amazing. I was blown away when he said he still couldn't believe he was working at Pixar. This taught me this whole other aspect of humbleness, and it reassured me that I wasn't incorrect to doubt myself.
I still really do believe that doubt is an essential part of what we do.
-Deena
First up is an artist. A concept designer/illustrator/storyboarder/matte painter to be more specific. He works at Pixar and is one of my most favorite people in the world, and his name is Paul Topolos.
One day in the summer of 2010 in Malaysia, I was trying to entertain myself with some newspapers while I sat in my grandparents' living room. My siblings had gone out without me, as they usually do, so I read the newspaper until I reached the ad section. I never skip the ads, because I always criticize the design and concept, and that's when I saw the ad for a lecture series hosted by a Malaysian university. When I read more, I found out it was about Pixar and they would have 8 Pixarians speak at the lecture series, taking up three days of summer. And because I was completely broke, I asked my mom if she could pay for me, and I broke down the amount of money and told her how I never went out or did anything and that she should help me go. And so she agreed and yea:
Amongst all the awesomeness,
the highlight of the lecture series was meeting Paul Topolos.
A landscape he did in Wall-E
He went on to explain that he does it because it makes him better, it makes him push himself and work harder. He said that he didn't actually like anything he had produced, he'd always think it could be better somehow.
This was probably a turning point in my life. I really sincerely believed that once you got up there, and was so amazing at your work, that you'd KNOW you were amazing. I was blown away when he said he still couldn't believe he was working at Pixar. This taught me this whole other aspect of humbleness, and it reassured me that I wasn't incorrect to doubt myself.
I still really do believe that doubt is an essential part of what we do.
-Deena
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