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

Digital Vacation

Have you looked around and discovered you have filled your life with bad habits? If you said NO- good for you, you might not be human! 😁 I was experiencing a major BLAH and it was all because of ME. What I spent time on, consumed, did and did not do. I also felt like the willpower I used to have in abundance was gone and I wondered if I would ever get it back. First and foremost I had to look at my main bad habits. What was the very first thing I did every day. EVERY DAY! I reached for my phone, I social media blitzed my brain over two long cups of coffee every morning. I made sure to look at my MEMORIES like it was my job every day. Ruminating on the past and seeing everyone's angry opinions and celebrity/political posts and regurgitated memes ad nauseum....is actually not a very optimistic and healthy way for me to cruise into the day. Not only is this not good for my spirit it wasted almost two hours of every morning. 💀 That's precious time! I'm weaning mys...

So what's the Scenario?

Street Artist 'My Dog Sighs' Paints Faces on Cans Found Littered on the Street I found this interesting art on Pinterest and thought it would be a good example for a proposed scenario.....indulge me if you will.... The scenario is this....this street artist paints on cans. Pretty cool right? Pretty neat! He's probably not the only one who paints on cans in the world but he most likely is the only one in his little neck of the woods and art circle. Ok, let's pretend I invite this CAN painter to be in this big group show we do annually at my gallery. (This is pretend land, I dont have a gallery but roll with me...) Ok, he is a hit, everyone thinks his can faces are awesome and he's considered pretty unique for doing this medium in our little art circle. Ok fast forward into the future....it's a year later and it's time for our big annual show...here's the scenario....we don't invite the CAN artist to come show again BUT we do hand out a can ...

Top 10 Reasons

Have you seen Labyrinth? The scene where she finally realizes she had the power all along and that actually Gareth did not ...that's powerful stuff. My favorite part....aside from every scene with David Bowie prancing about in too tight leggings. 😁 My digital vacation got interrupted yesterday. I've still been checking my messages in Messenger because HI IM AN ART BUSINESS AND THAT DONT STOP. I was alerted that the scammer had hit up a mutual friend and because I was trying to be Art Spiderman I went swinging back online to see what was going on. Unfortunately the scammer got someone and I had to make another PSA about it to help my peeps understand what was going on. Barring that though... it's up to YOU to be SMART PROACTIVE RESEARCHING humanoids. I can't save you. Also my brief pop into fakebook gave me enough fodder to want to keep my vacation going. Here's what I was met with on messenger and on my page upon landing: 1. People pushing politics/celebrities ...

Art Plunge

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