Maria Lua Music

Back in 1998 when I was 19, I started a course in PC engineering! 💾✨
I went to a computer fair to buy my first PC 🖥️ — the course taught me MS-DOS and how to build a PC from scratch 🔧 CPU, memory, the works.

I’d been working in catering before this 🍽️
It was tough work with low and insecure income, lots of harassment as a young woman. I wanted more money and more respect! I also loved computers like mad! So I knew I was onto something with a future 🚀 My ambition was stirred.

And now I had my own computer! 💡💻
The first thing I did was install music applications like Cool Edit 🎧 and Fruity Loops 🎶 Then Photoshop 🎨
I was already doing my own oil paintings at that time🖌️ — but I started scanning my art into the computer and digitalising my work from then already.

Circa 1998 🕰️
One machine. Music, art and tech all living in the same place for the first time 🎼🎨💻

Nothing has changed 🔥

PS I generated this image with AI 🤖 — we were still on analogue photography back in the day so I don’t have many photos from that era! But it’s a pretty accurate representation 😄

Week 12 of The Artist’s Way. The final week.
And I can’t start it.
(The Artist’s Way is a 12-week programme on how to unlock your inner artist and feed your creative spirit. If it’s not on your list yet, add it.)
Weeks 1 and 2 I was unstoppable. Finished a whole piece of art. Hosted an astrology gathering. Put my name forward for a DJ gig. Said yes to things I’d been circling for months. The floodgates opened and everything poured out.
Now I’m at the finish line and something in me has gone very quiet.
I’ve noticed this pattern before. In my songs. In my paintings. I get to the final stretch and something holds back. Like if I finish it, I have to let it go. And maybe I’m not ready to let it go yet.
Julia Cameron calls it resistance. I call it attachment.
Anyone else do this? Create something with your heart and soul ❤️‍🔥 Get so close and then… pause?

🎨

Music is my life ❤️