Finally, my self portrait

So here it is my self portrait. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself. I've put on my new business cards and brochures. I gotten a two more portrait commissions and three more in the works! YAY!! I'm so happy I finally made the decision to do this! I'll be posted more work as I complete them so you can see my progress and what I'm up to.

Change is GOOD

Well lots of changes for me these days. I know change is good but why does it have to hit you all at once? I recently got laid off from my 'day job'. I liked the job and it paid the bills (for the most part) and my health insurance but I guess the Universe is trying to tell me something. Is it to finally pursue my artistic endeavors? Now that I'm a little bit older and wiser and now have the confidence I lacked when I was younger to be the artist that I truly am. So I'm taking the good with the bad and keeping my (positive) valve open! Here I come world! :-)

How Gen got her artistic groove back

I was hired a few months ago to create some pen & ink illustrations to be used in a book of poetry. (I've posted a few of the pieces to be published in the book including the color cover.) I was quite excited to get this job. It had been a long time since I had done any illustration work...a long, long time in fact. So I was a little nervous at first but I did finally get my artistic groove back. I had a lot of fun and remembered why I loved drawing and creating in the first place.
This has inspired me to really pursue my portrait business. It's something that I've thought about doing for years now but never have. Since completing massage therapy school in 2006, I was very much into making it as a massage therapist these past few years and put all my time and effort into that. I thought that it would be a great second career. Don't get me wrong I do like being an MT but I guess after working on these pieces recently I realized that it's not truly my dream career. Art and drawing are my true passion...along with dark chocolate ;-)

Open Your Valve!

I'm posting this as a reminder of my journey into enlightenment.....


Force yourself to look for the well-being that is there, be it in government, the economy, trees, war, disasters, pestilence, localized massacres, relationships, or even TV.
Look for it, and decide to FIND IT!
By doing that, no only will you change the planet, you will bring endless buckets of well-being into your own life. Guaranteed.

And so . . .
Open your own valve
no matter what, no matter what,
No...MATTER...WHAT !!
The rest will take care of itself.

We cannot be connected to well-being and flowing well-being, without HAVING well-being, because not one thing comes to us that does not match our vibration.

The bottom line is:
What we focus on is what we feel
What we feel is what we vibrate
What we vibrate is what we attract.Open Your Valve!

When enough of us on this precious piece of real estate begin to get even a small amount of our negative energy turned to positive flow, wars will stop, trees will grow, suicides will be a thing of the past, prejudice will evaporate, natural disasters will all but cease.
Like attracts like, that is the way it is.

Open valves connect us to our core energy, bringing well-being.
The more connected we are, the more well-being abounds.

OPEN YOUR VALVE!!

Artwork from my D&D days

"Lady Moonlight"
watercolor and gouache on watercolor paper

I recently found a painting I did years ago when I was still with my ex-husband Evan. This was an illustration I did for a book he was writing at the time. The book was a fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons type book. The character was an elven sorceress named Lady Moonlight. I thought I share it. It's giving me some needed inspiration to get back into art and to remind myself that I actually do have some talent. ;-)

First recent commissioned portait

'Jack, Paula & Katie' 2008 - graphite pencil on Bristol paper

So after much contemplation, I decided that I wanted to get back to my artistic roots. Hell, I went to art school and got myself a BFA. I guess I should put some of my artistic talent to good use. After graduating years ago, I used to sell pencil portraits for a short time. This was before the age of the internet, networking, guerrilla marketing, etc. I was in my twenties pounding the pavement for work. Kids these days don't know how good they have it! but didn't our parents say that to us? ;-) So alas, because I had bills and needed to eat, my portrait business went on the back burner.

My recently commissioned portrait happened like this. I was discussing starting a pencil portrait business with one of my regular massage clients who I also advertise my massage business with. Surprisingly, she hired me on the spot to do a portrait of her family (see above). Keep in mind, this was without even seeing any of my work. She took it on faith and my word that I would do a good job. We discussed the cost, etc. and we were good to go. I was so happy she gave me this chance since this was my first paid portrait in years. I had a slow start but once my creative juices started to flow it just came naturally. I was very pleased with the way it turned out and so was she. She was shocked that the likenesses were so spot-on.

This gave me the confidence I needed to get this new business venture going. Now I just need to make more time to work on some sample portraits for my portfolio/brochure/website. I'm excited that I might actually be able to make money at something I love to do!

Note: the digital image above has some unusual darks & lights. Next time I'll have to scan the artwork to ensure it's better quality.

Glad to be cooking again

Now that my hubby works decent hours I have decided to start cooking again. I'm having a blast! My last culinary success was Lobster Cakes made from left-over lobster from a dinner we had at my sister Jodi's. They came out awesome! My friend 'E' will be blogging about it soon!