What Makes Me Happy is Pretty Simple

Essay by Luke Foster

“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”

Khalil Gibran

These days what makes me happy is pretty simple. I like to go grocery shopping and then knowing that I have a cupboard and fridge full of healthy food.

I enjoy doing a whole series of intuitive drawings at once.

I enjoy starting the day at the local café getting a soy latte with two sweeteners in my aluminium, blue mug. Then I enjoy doing laps at the local beaches close by while I listen to rock music on my I phone for two hours. There is nothing like the feeling of wet sand beneath the feet and the view of waves and the horizon.

I love brainstorming ideas some days while beach walking then writing them when I get back to my tiny apartment about three times a week.

I enjoy travelling abroad for a month each year and exploring different countries and drawing everyday as I travel on A4 watercolour paper and mainly visiting art galleries. Then compiling the drawings into a hardcover book of original drawings when I get home. However, in the future I shall do a studio residency abroad for a month each year. This year in New York and next year in Fukuoka Japan.

I enjoy talking on the phone with friends about art and books and movies.

I love making a soy decaf ice latte and sipping it while I watch Disney Plus or Netflix movies in the evening.

“Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don’t collect all these tiny successes, the big ones don’t really mean anything.”

Norman Lear

I enjoy having art exhibitions a few times a year to showcase my drawings, photos, video and hand drawn t-shirts.

I enjoy meeting my friends or even just texting them with humorous anecdotes.

I love to occasionally internet shop late at night for art books, Yoshitomo Nara t-shirts and hoodies and records and art materials.

I love reminiscing mainly about my mum who I dearly miss mainly while I am beach walking.

“When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.”

Unknown author

This is a photo of me at the end of my last studio residency at the Big Ci in Bilpin in the Blue Mountains. I love to go there for a month once a year so I can focus on ambitious big drawings and installations I also love to meet both Australian and international artists and talk about our work and all topics creative.

This is me at open day at the end of my last residency at the Big Ci explaining my work. I dressed up as one of my favourite artists: Joseph Beuys but the grey fedora hat didn’t arrive in the mail in time and he didn’t wear tight jeans.