Happy Anniversary!

picture of me at Cedars West Arts Festival manning the paint station for Magic Garden Program

photo by Gabriela Elguea and Heather Shoulders

Sometimes it's good to just pause from the busy life and TO DO LISTS and the stuff rolling around in your brain and take inventory of all that is good in our life. I am doing that right now. It dawned on me today as I turned in my blog for I Am Bilingue that the last cover I gave them was for a Fathers Day edition and the very first assignment they gave me was for...a Fathers Day edition. I remember very clearly meeting with Fabian Campos, my contact at the paper/website, and how it just seemed a perfect laidback fit and I hoped against hope they would like my work enough to keep me on.

my first cover for Mercado Bilingue, I've been teaching myself Photoshop and Illustrator

Here I am a year later and I have 13 covers under my belt and countless blogs. A lot of the features have been memoirs of my life with my Dad (I lost to Diabetes two years ago) and I've also got to interview and report about the art and culture in Dallas/Oak Cliff. It's been a rewarding endeavor, keeping me connected to my "hood", roots and hopefully shedding a little light on some artists and venues that need it. I have loved retelling stories about my Dad- and I will admit- I do cry every time I have to write one but it's a good cry and I'm happy to FEEL the deep love I have for my Dad. Ugh....crying now. Pause.

my latest cover for Mercado Bilingue, out on the streets now

Ok, so YAY HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to me! It's been a long year freelancing, almost two years (come August) since I quit a dead end job and recovered from a back injury and lost my sweet Pops. I have so many supportive awesome people in my life and although the money is scant sometimes I wouldn't give up this path I've chosen for anything. I am learning about myself, the struggles I can endure,becoming stronger and appreciative of all the little things in life. I feel blessed to share my triumphs and defeats with you. If you believe in yourself you can go so far. I hope my words empower you today. Take a minute for gratitude.

If you don't get Mercado Bilingue where you are...I blog my feature here at I AM BILINGUE

Comments

Words!

Hello! I haven't blogged since last year. Even writing the word "blog" felt foreign and weird! I have actually been writing stuff on my Patreon account so if you've missed the updates you can sign up for free over there. There is also an option to pay a few dollars a month to help support me as an artist and get "extra" content- in case you are of that mindset and either way- thank you for caring about the art adventures. I have missed blogging actually. I guess I like to make words, string them together like a pretty necklace and let them live their own expressive life wrapped around me. Times are different. Times are weird! But I guess you know that. And also times are the same and as old as time. Is it really more terrible than any other time or are we humans just more "connected" to the propaganda and daily bad trip in a way that is insane and unhealthy? Either way I do my best to keep my sanity and I don't believe about 98% of what I s...

Taming the monster

What started as me deciding to spend 30 minutes picking out clothes to donate from my closet .. Turned into about 2 hours of folding t shirts, jeans and deciding winter was far enough away that all sweaters and coats could be packed away. My closet was a walk-in diaster. My cat had lived in it all winter, knocked stuff down, slept on it, fuzzed up clothes and built forts. No lie. I had been living in the same two pairs of jeans and 5 shirts off my bedroom floor (closet #2 😂). First things first, all the T shirts from OLD JOBS were the first to get put in donation pile. I don't need memories of "that place" and they were all too small, waaay too large or tan/beige/grey ..all the wrong unhappy colors that just say JOB when you look at them. Bye! So that happened yesterday. Major project that still needs work but for now it is peaceful enough to my brain to leave it alone. I have two large loads of laundry to do because my clothes look like...well like a cat has been sleep...

It's the little things...

I will eventually get back to posting about art 😂 but I lost my first pound with just 3 days of dedicating myself to Metabolic Renewal...and this is me playing fast and loose because A. I did not buy their shakes I'm doing my own. So I don't really know their caloric/nutrition value vs mine. B. Getting 10,000 steps a day on my pedometer.... doesn't happen. That's almost two hours of walking a day. I get 8,000 or 9,000 before the Texas heat or work calls it off. C. Haven't followed any of the meal recipes. I've been winging it with good sense. I will get closer to their instructions in time ( like maybe next week) since I paid for it. My body is SORE AF. It's totally getting put through the paces and I'm lucky there are modifications for pudgy newbies like me. But 1st lb down is a good feeling because seeing the scale move down is what I'm after. I'm pretty proud of myself for yesterday in general..did my workout, a walking session THEN WENT ...

Art Plunge

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