My intention with this illustration is fairly simple, and deals with a lot of my own anxiety over creating any artwork. When I was invited to design a Select shirt, I was really excited at the opportunity at first, then I started to get pretty nervous about it all. I had given myself a general direction I wanted to go in, but I felt like it HAD to be great or I would be wasting this chance. I kind of put off dealing with it for a bit, hoping that I would have some epiphany that never came.

After a few weeks I realized I had to just get it finished, so I started sketching tons of flowers and faces. I liked the idea of someone surrounded by weeds, and how a lot of plants that we think of as thorny and scary also have these beautiful flowers rising out of them. I decided that I wanted to have the top of the image be more focused on the pleasant imagery and as you got further to the bottom you started to get confronted with darker imagery. Beyond the literal interpretation, for me it's also a metaphor for creating art. How you're always going in with beautiful images swirling through your mind, but once you're in it the reality is you have to deal with the bugs and the thorns of actually making it a finished product. So the title refers to my constant worrying about spending so much time on something only to fall flat on my face and fail.

So after typing that all out, I can understand how no one would get what I was thinking. I still hope it can be enjoyed without any context as well, but there it is for better or worse.