HAPPINESS STARTS FROM WITHIN

Over the years and through endless amounts of costumes and cosplays for my daughters and our pets. Through Prom outfits and Halloween costumes….I’m finally at the point in my life where I can devote my skills to making stuff for myself again and making art!

Creating art, makes… me… happy! Seeing how it affects other people, makes me happy. Dancing makes me happy and listening to music inspires me.

Without a doubt, no matter how busy or crazy my life might be…making the time to be creative and create art that utilizes all of my skills makes me the happiest.

It's often a hard lesson to learn, but I've learned that in order to achieve happiness you must first be happy with yourself. That your judge and jury must be based on whether you are happy with what you have done and/or are doing rather than for the approval of others. You can't please everyone. And you shouldn't strive to do that. When you do that, you only set yourself up for disappointment.

Are you happy with your accomplishments? Have you done the best to your ability and are you proud of that? If you have, then your efforts will shine through and reach people with pure joy. All the art I have created past and present have been for arts sake, the passion, enjoyment of it and to share with people knowing that I have touched them in one way or another.

The journey and the struggle of everything leading up to the final finished piece... is my joy and my gift to myself.

When I can share that joy with someone else as well…..well, that’s just priceless.

One day a friend of mine danced a crazy piece to Mozart. It gave me so much joy and inspiration to watch her. The pure genius of it inspired me to want to create an exhibit which shows the how Dance affects us in different ways. Thus “ Dance is Life” was birthed.

I proceeded to watch a few of my friends dance in various styles and different musical genres. I noted how each affected my emotions and feelings. I ended up coming up with a few key feelings that I wanted to portray in visual art form: INSPIRATION, JOY, CONFIDENCE, FLOW, NOSTALGIA and finally SPIRIT.

I wanted create an artistic exhibit that would tell a story in a way that was unique only to me.

It would be art on a multi sensory level. Presented in Sight & Sound. I dream of this being exhibited someplace; where on opening night I can invite my dancers/models to come and perform.

While Poets read each piece live during the performance. Till finally the night ends in a huge dance party for everyone! Celebrating life, joy and all the things that are evoked with and through dance.

I wrote poems for each piece. Some of the pieces have outfits designed by me. I would make the patterns, cut and sew them. Some of the pieces required me to build sets and have props.

So my journey sets off with a concept and ended up with me creating the entire visual world for each concept. I asked myself how I wanted to represent each visually. Than I plowed ahead enthusiastically.

As I tackled each piece, I would sketch out the outfits I needed to make. I would plan out the sets I needed to build. I thought about how and where I wanted to photograph each piece.

With each step my excitement grew as my concepts were coming to life.

Each piece had a carefully compiled playlist to set the mood. I coaxed my model with music, words and direction for them to bring to the art what I needed to come to life for me to capture.

At the end of each piece and each photo shoot I would be overwhelmed and overjoyed with the abundance of amazing images to choose from.

Not done yet! Then comes the fun part of creating layers and adding to the images; to create even more!

It’s often a multi layered task that might include many different skill sets for me. The complexity and the challenge of each piece made the journey much more exciting and rewarding for me. Especially when the end results exceeded my initial expectations!

I started this project, “Dance is Life” last year. Each piece is an epic journey in itself and I am finally close to completion. With only “JOY” left to create. The ideas are in my head, I only need to bring it to life.

I love what I do because it gives me a chance to say what I want and to share it with the world.

Hopefully by putting myself and my art out there I can give strength, encouragement and inspiration to someone else as well. Images are very powerful. It can lift someone up when they are down. It can remind them of something they have forgotten. It can put a smile on their face. It can stimulate their minds and spark a debate. I love what I do and the art I create because it touches lives.

I better get cracking on "JOY" there's so much to do before I can shoot it!

But with hard work, comes the rewards of satisfaction, accomplishment and the beauty of the art.

I’m notjusttheordinary and this is my world….