Listening to Colin Hay, seriously if you have not listened to him, you totally should. Great morning coffee and work music. Anyhoo. I promised news a while back. As usual, life got busy and I am trying to get it all done so blogging takes a back seat. It seems my to do list gets bigger and bigger. But my greatest fear is to get to the end of my to do list. Lordy, what then?? Ok, just to let you know what is going on and what has me so busy: I have been asked to be represented by a gallery in New Orleans. While visiting there a few weeks back I was in heaven visiting one gallery after another. I wandered into one of them and started chatting up the owner. I noticed a Ron Burns painting on the wall. We began a conversation about dog art. He asked what I did, and, well you can tell the rest. I mentioned my Big Dog series. He asked to see it. I went home and sent him a webpage showing my series not thinking he would be interested once he saw the style. Well, a week later he wrote and said that he and his business partner would like to represent the originals and how soon could I get him 4-5 of them. And just like that a lifetime dream came true. So I am getting them ready to ship out, plus doing one new one - they requested a pug. So I have been doing that, getting commissions done, design work done, always trying to get new freelance in and doing the mommy thing which is really why I do any of this. Oh, and I just finished a big book proposal for my Rufus and Lucy series for my licensing agency. Won't it be nice when any of this makes me money?? The only thing making me money right now is the design work. Which is the thing I want to do least. But it pays my bills. So I work all weekend long, plus nights. So while I work for myself I am pretty much the same as anyone else out there with a full time job and kids and trying to make it on their own in their sparetime. One day my paintings and children's books will be all that i do, but in the meantime I thank my lucky stars that I know how to layout a brochure and design a webpage. But boy, I am ready to do what I want full time. I am very lucky that I manage to make enough money to keep my apartment, keep my studio, and pay my bills. The time will come when my passion for my art will take care of all that, i know it will. Patience is the hardest thing to learn how to have. I have recently begun to redefine success for myself. It used to mean plenty of money in the bank - which meant I perpetually felt like a failure. Now I realize that I am acheiving so many of my life goals, but it doesn't necessarily mean a big payoff. But I am doing what I love and I get to wake up each day with the choices all being mine. It is not an easy life at times, but it is very rewarding to know that I have earned everything I have. Mostly I am so determined to teach my kids that this life is truly about what we make it. Ok, enough of this I will leave you with an illustration from my book: