Hi! Call me Lesti! I was born a girl [she/her] but having grown up with only my older brother to play with, I'm very tomboyish. I don't mean to freak people out but I'm 35. I know I'm freakishly outside of the average age range in this corner of the net but I can explain.
See, I like to consider myself, what I will call, a "net-vet". Since my middle school days back in 96' I've been floating around the net doing my artist thing. Not to say that I know all there is cuz I only went around to a handful of places. But to give you a bit of a visual about how long ago that was, imagine no art galleries like dA in existence, and yahoo!geocities was all the craze where you built your personal site from the ground up using only html cuz css didn't exist. Social media hadn't even been thought of so interaction across the net wasn't so constant and unyielding. I was laid back and lighthearted and followed the trail of fun where ever it went. Even though time has changed a lot of things—not only across the net but my actual self and my life—I strive to continue that course of whimsy following the fun where ever it can be found. Unfortunately it means I end up mingling with a younger crowd even though I'm not that young anymore.
The problem is, well...I kinda don't fit in anywhere. For being the age I am, I love things before my time—classic things like antiques and retro things and old school principles and values. So I end up having this "old soul" vibe and get along very well with people older than me but they're no fun. At the same time, there are very few people I meet in the physical realm who aren't shocked when I reveal my age as it seems I have a gene that causes me to appear much younger than I really am. And being a creative person who goes out scouring the world for fun and inspiration giving me a "young at heart" aura that can draw in kids helps to add to my youthful appearance, to my dismay. Because in the end, I end up being "too young" for people in my actual age range and don't get along well with them. And then a lot of the time for the younger generation, facts are facts...I'm in my mid 30's; I shouldn't be here.
I've put my age out there because I want to be fair with people even if it is a disadvantage to me when I have the anonymity of the internet as a make-shift resolution sitting right there. Internet safety is important to me and considering there are youths in their teens here, who will be dealing with someone far beyond their age range, you are entitled to this information. You all have the right to be informed so you can make an informed decision as to whether or not you want to associate with me. There you have it. I will certainly not find you offensive for merely doing what you feel is best for you.
*sigh* Anyway, I also have a bit of another PSA to put out there about myself. I suffer mental illness that my doctor has slapped the label of schizophrenia or schizo-affective or something like that, but in reality, they don't know what it is. The diagnosis is just there so that I'm in the running for treatment. My main symptoms are confusion, which my meds handle that fine, and then there's my paranoia and insomnia which I still struggle with a bit. There's also my depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Yeah, I'm a hot mess. :T
My biggest trigger is just flat out stress. And I can get stressed out from being overwhelmed by my responsibilities in my day to day to just simply being in an environment of negativity. I say this to give my reasons for avoiding social media as much as I can, cuz there's a lot of drama there. That and the constant influx that I would have to keep up with would stress me out too.
Alright, now that the bad, long, and boring part is out of the way...
About my art: Whatever impression you have about my art, it is the cumulative result of 20+ years of drawing. Though I would've loved to have gone to school but couldn't b/c of financial reasons, I don't take my art (or myself for that matter) seriously. The only thing I take seriously is my passion for creativity. And I will dabble in whatever I'm given the opportunity to dabble in. Singing, music, dancing, writing, sculpting, oil/acrylic/watercolor painting, copic markers, digital painting, photography, graphite, life drawing, cartooning, animating, crafting, fonts, sewing, web design are all mediums or areas I've put my hands on at least once in my lifetime. My finances and time restrict me so much nowadays I generally stick to singing, drawing, and taking phone pics. And then writing is here and there.
Other interests: If what little of my free time doesn't go to something creative, then I game or do something active. My gaming venue is mostly of retro games from the Genesis era, however I do like to keep up with fresh installments of classic game franchises like Zelda and I'm all over this 4th edition of the Streets of Rage series that came out on the Genesis some (was it 20?) years ago. I love to do co-ops across my brother's PS4 account when I get the chance. His call sign is SSJGoku83.
Interactions: I'm all about online paintchats! Iscribble.net (when it's back in action), google hangouts, aggie.io! But I'm pretty introverted so I can only take so much of it at a time and it's hard for me to relate b/c I have a small and specific set of interests. Plus it's hard for me to quickly process information so that I can then, with much difficulty, formulate responses from my thoughts and feelings. Basically, I can't keep up in a chat. But I love to learn things, so it's interesting to me to listen to people talk about things that they're passionate about.