I have just discovered the work of Steven Keiper Jr and I’d like to promote it. I want to promote his work because, through the struggles of a person close to me, I understand the difficulties with life that alcoholism presents. It makes life much harder – almost impossible sometimes. It makes life dangerous and there are demons to fight.
Steven says the following about the drawing above:
“Bengal cat. This is a print of the Bengal cat drawing I did. Take a close look at the reflection in the cats eye, there is a little surprise. This drawing I think is my best work to date. The drawing took me around 90 hours total, I have been working on this drawing 12 plus hours a day. This drawing was drawn from a photo I got from a facebook friend. As soon as I saw the photo, I felt like I had to draw it. I thought the cat was beautiful and deserved a piece of artwork, based on her image.”
We should be sympathetic and I admire Steve for openly and honestly writing about his struggles with alcoholism on Facebook and particularly on the Pictures-of-cats.org FB community page.
Steve describes himself as a recovering alcoholic. This means he is able to manage it. He admits to a relapse but in essence he is managing his addiction, which is a monumental achievement.
See Cats in Paintings on PoC
Steve very nicely – by which I mean honestly – writes that he relapsed a couple of weeks ago and follows it up by saying he has been sober for two weeks. Great. That is what managing alcoholism is all about.
Steve admits that he finds it difficult to forgive himself but that he can easily forgive others. This is probably rooted in the problem which caused his alcoholism in the first place. Perhaps, like many, he has a self-esteem problem. This may have been drilled into him many years ago. Steve should be very proud of (a) his recovery from alcoholism and (b) his talent as an artist in creating outstanding work.
I hope he will realise that we all have frailties and strengths. I believe we all suffer the same sorts of doubts and harbour the same sorts of mental conflicts. Steve is no different. He should not punish himself (by not forgiving himself).
Pushing away low self-esteem is helpful in controlling drinking. I hope I have not “spoken out of turn” in very briefly expressing my thoughts on this subject. Formally, I am not an expert but I do know a lot about alcoholism through caring for a person close to me who fights and sometimes succumbs to the dreaded addiction.
Steve was sober for two years and eight months until he relapsed recently. Steve tries to understand why. It may be because he was reflecting on the past and some memories hurt.
I hope some people will buy his work which you can see more of by clicking here where you can purchase it online.
Please comment on Facebook to spread the word. Please click “Also post on Facebook”. Thanks:
