About

Here is the definition of art by Wikipedia: Art is a diverse range of human activities involving the creation of visual, auditory or performing artifacts, which express the creator’s imagination, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

There isn’t a specific time that my artistic journey began, not one point to pin it down to. As a child I liked arts and crafts and I wasn’t bad at it during school, but I was never someone to really explore art in any depth.

If I had to pick a point in time where art became more important to me, it would be some day in 2005 when my children where in school and kindergarten and for the first time in a long time, I had our apartment all to myself. For the first time it was quiet, and I had thought I would enjoy that, but instead was bored.

I began filling my time with writing, short things at first, soon after books. I mostly wrote for myself and my family but in 2006 I was published twice with a small publisher that went bankrupted a few years later.

Anyway, I guess that’s where it began, but the real journey started some years later after I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disorder. Not exactly the change in life I asked for. I worked as a cook at the time, and I loved my job, especially since my boss encouraged and nurtured my creativity in the kitchen. I started to write again, immerging myself in an imaginary world that I controlled, since outside of my writing it felt like I had lost all control.

I hung on to my “real world” job for as long as I could, but after two years I had to give in and accept that my pain disorder and my work where no longer compatible. Which left me at a lurch, since I had never worked a job that didn’t require physical labor. I had no High-school degree, and no idea what to do in regard to work. Yet sitting at home doing nothing productive, aside from housekeeping, isn’t me either.

Just to clarify something, being productive to me doesn’t mean the main goal is making money. To me it means to do something that will benefit myself and others and if possible, also help to pay the bills. I might be a dreamer, but I also know that the world turns on a roll of money, not fluffy clouds. Even though that would be nicer.

I love writing and I kept at it for some time, but since I’m dyslexic, English is my second language and don’t have the money to pay for a good editor, I soon had to admit that I would never make good money with it. However, doing the whole self-publishing thing, I discovered something else, something new about me. I loved to design and create my own book covers. I loved to design, period. So, I started to play around with that and offered others who had no interest in designing to do it for them.

There actually are several book-covers out there, on published books that I created. And each one was a challenge that made me explore my artistic side more and more.

I discovered that I sucked at drawing by hand but using a drawing tablet and some software I was able to draw and design things I didn’t think I could. The more I explored the more I went away from book covers and towards doing my own thing. Which I have no real way of defining, because at the end of the day I have no clue about art, just about creating things.

I’m an eclectic person, music, books, art, I don’t have one niche I subscribe to, but many. My artistic journey is just as eclectic.

Five years ago I started placing my art on clothing, home décor, accessories and such through websites like Redbubble, Zazzle or Society 6 to just name a few. I also started to create my own products to sell on local Farmer markets, mostly because I thought selling my books wouldn’t warrant the fees to get a stand. I decided to create bookmarks, from there I created reusable calendars. After that I looked into drop shippers and began to order my art in the form of pillows, posters, and mugs.

I didn’t sell a lot but enough to keep going and the amounts of compliments made me think that I could make good money. Well, sadly there is more to making money then just offering a product. So when I opened up my own online store three years ago I thought it would be easy. Today I know better, not just that running an online store cost quite a bit, but also that I’m not really cut out for it.

I like to create and I don’t have the patience to keep a store up to date, to create promotion after promotion and I hate trying to find the words that will people want to buy my things.

I want to sit on my computer with my drawing tablet and design. I want to cut my photographs to size and laminate them to create new bookmarks. I like to pour paint over a canvas and watch it become something magnificent. I want to sit on my workstation and create jewelry, coasters and other things with resin. I want to learn and explore more ways to be creative and to share the results with others. While hopefully make some money without having to spent more then I make.

So… that’s what I will try to do. How about you follow me on that journey. And if you see something down the road that you like, let me know or buy it, or both.