First up! For the time being, I have moved the store front over to Square. This provides better peace of mind for people looking to buy something, less of a headache for me in trying to maintain a full-time job and keep up with all the things that are required to make sure it works properly, and faster loading. The downside is the drop-shipping service I prefer to use isn’t integrated with Square so back to that drawing board I go. I’d love to be able to keep product on hand and ship in house but we’re not at that point yet.

As for me, yesterday was the first day of a new job which was exciting and awesome. What makes it more special is that the location is the same as my first job when I moved to this city. It’s where I met my partner as well. So far it has been an amazing experience, certainly tugging at the nostalgia feels, while also providing a refreshing experience of working with a team that is happy to have me there.

For paintings, nothing new has been started. I’d really like to focus my energy on finishing and polishing the paintings that have been yearning for my attention first. This will give me some time to settle into my new schedule since it’s a little different from what I’d gotten used to. The downside of this new job is that all of my weekend free time is gone and that is typically when vendor markets are done. But summertime in Texas is the absolute worst when it comes to open air markets so it’s not too much of a loss and weekends may open back up later on.

It’s also now been a week since I started taking regular supplements and, while I’m still tired all the time, I have been smiling a little more. So that’s good. Clearly, I’ve been feeling a little more motivated when it comes to the things I used to be passionate about. Progress is progress.

A full 2 years since my last post. I really am terrible at keeping up with this site. So much has happened since then. After I quit my job, I spent about 6 months being highly productive with painting. Mainly finishing up paintings that had been waiting for a long time. It felt really good. However, during that time I suffered a major hard drive failure and lost all the photos I’d taken and processed to be added on here. Of course, I didn’t believe in back-ups, so everything was just gone. Very disheartening. I also let one bad show demotivate me more than it should have. With dwindling funds, I ended up going back to work about a year ago and, since I had been in a tight spot financially, I wasn’t able to be very discerning with my choice of employment. The stress I had left my old job to recover from still hadn’t abated and this new company was actually worse. So, I just shut down. Work, home, eat, sleep, work, home, eat, sleep. Rinse and repeat. No desire to do anything more, no motivation to live beyond what was necessary. For another year. I just quit about a week ago.

Don’t get my wrong, some good did come of it. Thanks to some of the incentive programs, I was able to upgrade my printer and can now produce high-quality prints of my artwork. Not limited to 8″ by 10″ and smaller, as well. The last month with that company was better as well at the beginning and revitalized my will to enjoy life. That is to say, I had a new painting just completed and have drastically improved another one. I’m also in a better situation financially. Not completely out of the woods but certainly on better legs.

Not everything is related to work, however. I recently discovered that there is a high likelihood that I may be suffering from a hereditary deficiency in potassium. Which explains a lot that doctors have always failed to.

I’ve always been very reserved on what I post on here so let me explain a little backstory:

A couple years ago I started experiencing episodes of unexplained tachycardia. These episodes can last anywhere from 10 minutes to over an hour. I had an appointment with a cardiologist that I had to cancel when I lost my medical insurance but even before then my GP hadn’t done a great job of trying to resolve any issues that I brought up that wasn’t immediately fixable. Blood tests were conducted but results were never discussed unless I asked. “Your levels are a little off but they’re within normal ranges so nothing is actually wrong.” Then why don’t I feel like myself anymore? “Try these pills that make you feel like crap if you miss your dose by more than 10 minutes.” Why am I always so tired? I sleep 8 hours a night and if I have no reason to stay awake then I end up napping for another 3 hours in the middle of the day. No explanation.

My mother was hospitalized last month and during that time some underlying health issues that had been attributed to other diagnoses were brought to light. Chief among them were low potassium levels. Which her father died from. Sounds like such a small and simple to correct thing, too. If left unchecked, though, it can have serious health issues. Such as heart attacks. Which is actually how my grandfather died. A heart attack caused by a severe lack of potassium. It can also cause fatigue, low motivation, depression-like symptoms, intestinal problems. Guess which of those I don’t have. I’ll give you a hint. It’s less than 1.

Couple low potassium with chronically high stress levels and you’ve got a recipe for one messed up artist.

So, I have a plan to get my life back. Daily supplements, yoga, and painting. I also what to be a little more open on here about what is going on with me. Not just the painting. I can’t pretend my life is sunshine and rainbows. To be fair, not a person alive can truly make that claim. My life isn’t bad; I have a place I call my own, a supportive partner that has been with me for almost 16 years now, a small group of friends, a loving family that has always been there for me, and a passion that some people seem the enjoy. My life is actually pretty good; I just need to be able to enjoy it again. So, expect a life-centered rant from time to time.

I don’t actually expect anyone to read this but if you did thank you for taking the time.

So, it’s been a little over 6 months since I moved into the new place and a couple of things have changed since then. I am now completely in-house for the production of prints and some small products thanks to having a printer and Cricut. Also, about a month ago, I quit my job for a couple reasons. Mainly due to some health issues that were a result of stress. I’ve been staying home since then, getting some much-needed rest, catching up on a ton of unfinished paintings and in general living quietly. I have a couple of local events coming up that I’m both excited for and terrified of.

It’s funny, I started this post expecting to go on a rant about what the stress was doing to my body or to wax poetic about the various projects I’m working on or even to go on and on about the events I’m going to attend but I find myself short on words.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and if you would like to support my recovery, please head on over the shop and buy something.

In less than a week I will be moving to a new home. I’m hoping that a new environment will help me focus better on keeping my website and other things up to date. Fresh start and all that jazz.

I have some things that need to be updated on here, plenty of new paintings to add to the gallery. There is also a plan to add new prints to the store. I’ve started making 8″x10″ prints in-house so that I can have better control of the quality of the print. This also gives me the opportunity to start offering special edition prints so I’m very excited about that. Additionally, I’ve been looking into making stickers at home as well since this will enable me to keep the cost and price down.

As crazy as it may sounds, one of the things I’m most excited about in my new home will be the wall color. Currently my walls are beige and that has been having an effect on taking photos of the artwork. It’s also a very depressing color, I’ve concluded. The new walls will be a nice neutral white, which helps light reflect better and without the color shift in photos.

Another thing I am looking forward to is the dining area, which has traditionally been my studio space, is it’s own space rather than an extension of the living area and is a bit larger as well. Not quite to the point of it being it’s own room but getting closer.

All in all I am really looking forward to this new chapter of my life. After 7 years where I’m currently at, it was most certainly time.

Well, that’s all I’ve got to say now…. bye!

So, my print on demand service recently made some changes that make it difficult to add new items. Because of this I will be switching services which means that current items will be removed. Hopefully the switch will not take too long but this change should be for the best. Thank you, always, for your support.

Good news, everyone! I was recently able to acquire a real camera and have been spending the last 2 weeks processing photos of almost all of the paintings. They are now available in the portfolio gallery and will soon be available in the store on various items for purchase.

Hello my friends! I am, of course, still here. I’ve just been quietly working on other things, again. As you might have noticed, not much has really changed on the main gallery site, most changes have taken place on the storefront. I will be adding more of my newer paintings up on here and there soon, just trying to find the best work-around for not having a real camera. It’s not easy, lol!

There has also been a lot of painting like… a lot! I think there are currently 4 paintings in the works that are just about done. Of course, I have tried to work on just one painting until completion, but it never works for me! When it’s just the one painting, there is a burst of creative energy that runs out quickly and then I have to force myself to slog through to the end. If I have more than one, I can set it aside when I start to feel the drag and come back to it refreshed later on. This method, of course, has its own issues. Sometimes I find myself sitting there thinking “I don’t know which one I want to work on today….”

But enough ranting. The point is, I’m still here, still painting, and I have not forgotten about the main gallery… much.

Just wanted to put a quick little blurb up about a couple of things! 1: The grand opening sale for my art store will be expiring at the end of the year so be sure to take advantage of the 15% discount while you still can! 2: The storefront itself has changed a bit to allow for better usability (hopefully). 3: I’m still painting, I just haven’t been at a point on my current painting where I wanted to share BUT you will be seeing it soon.

Be sure to follow me on Instagram where you can see works in progress and in-studio pictures. You can also support me on Patreon to help fund my oil paint addiction. All of my members on Patreon get a monthly discount for my store.

As I’ve been working to update the portfolio on here, I realized that there is a good number of paintings I don’t considered finished. Either I thought of them as finished and then reconsidered or I set them aside to come back to and never did. So, over the next couple of weeks, I plan to reduce that number down to nothing before I start anything new. After doing a quick count, there are about 27 paintings to work on so needless to say I’ve got alot of work ahead of me. Since I’ll be going from oldest to newest that does mean any current personal projects will be put on hold however I am still offering commissions and those will come first.