I mean — yes, I love it. I always have.

In fact, do you remember being a kid and having that one thing you could do for hours without realizing how much time had passed?

Like shooting hoops in the driveway until your mother called you in for dinner,

Playing baseball games on Saturday mornings, or taking something apart just to understand how it worked and putting it back together even though no one had asked you to.

The kind of thing that, if someone had told you as an adult you could do it for a living, you would have chosen without thinking twice.

The kind of thing most people look back on and wish they had pursued.

For me, that was painting.

I never saw it as a job. I saw it as my dream.

And somehow, I built my life around it.

But the reason I still paint today is not just the art.

It’s the messages I receive every day because of my work.

Messages like these:

“My sister had been one of the most important people in my life, and she was getting married in two months.

I needed something to give her that would truly be worthy of the moment and show her that.

But everything I found felt too generic, empty, and materialistic.

Until I found you, Victor.

I saw your paintings and knew it was the perfect gift, the one that would actually reach her heart.

I wasn’t wrong.

When I saw the finished painting, I was blown away.

Every brushstroke carried something, and it literally took me back to how that moment in the photo felt.

I gave it to her, and her reaction was incredible.

I think that was the most emotional I’ve ever seen my sister.

Thank you so much, Victor.

You have a true gift.”

Or like this one:

“I had a pretty important birthday coming up, and I didn’t want to show up with the first thing I could find,

Especially knowing it would make me look bad and people would probably talk about it behind my back afterward.

But I’m a simple guy, and I didn’t really know how to overthink it or what to buy.

I had thought about giving money, because it was the most practical thing.

But the closer the date got, the worse I felt about the idea.

Until I found you and commissioned a portrait from a special photo we had.

Honestly, the painting turned out spectacular, and the reaction was brutal, exactly the way I had imagined it.

Afterward, she told me my gift was the best thing that had happened to her in months.

Very happy, Victor.”

Messages like these are the reason I pick up the brush every morning.

And what I’ve realized through all of this is that the real reason I paint is this:

I get to make two dreams come true at the same time.

Mine: doing what I love with every brushstroke.

And other people’s dreams too.

Like one client who told me that his cousin’s dream had always been to get married,

And that her wedding was much more than just a special day to her.

He needed something that would make that day unforgettable.

Something that made sense coming from him.

Something she could look at years from now and remember who gave it to her.

Something that reflected everything they had lived through together since they were kids.

When he received the painting, he wrote to me saying that he finally had what he had been looking for.

But that wasn’t the best part.

The best part was when he gave it to her, and both of them called me crying with emotion, telling me I had made that day unforgettable.

And that is what makes me happy.

Knowing that I get to spend my life fulfilling other people’s dreams and my own at the same time.

That’s why I paint every brushstroke as if I might never get to paint another one.

Because who knows if any of us will still be here tomorrow?