dreams of painting in pyjamas
Anyone who cares to read the stuff I write here and can remember my post about how I love anybody or anything that is creative (read here: Cos I get a kick outta you). People like myself do these things first and foremost because it's their passion, their raison d'etre, the thing that gets them out of bed in the morning. Well, maybe even after a dose of caffeine first needed to spark the creative flow, that will be me included.
If anyone of these people can make some green from the stuff they do then big welcomes all round. Making your hobby your job is the penthouse suite of career and creativity, jacuzzi and all. This week I got some news that this had happened.
My friend from school days who thanks to facebook I got back in touch with, Sarah Preston, did just that. Sarah is a children's book illustrator with a passion for paints and a creative flow of colour and unique characters. You can check out her blog on my blog list right here, not that she is the most efficient at doing updates ( girl, I told you that..).
Since I first saw her work I knew her style was unique and that she was going places. I had a gut feeling she would be leaving her art teacher's job because her easel and her small but increasing amount of commissions were demanding it. In these last 12 months the paint has flowed and the career dream has edged so much closer.
Then came the real pay-off. The one that made her say "it's happening". The pay-off for somebody who never stopped drawing and more importantly never stopped dreaming through the hard times. I always say that if you can be creative in hard times it is the ultimate test. She passed with flying paint pot colours. Ladybird books have given her the big break and now with 3 Little Pigs in her mind, in her face and on her sketch pad and another one of her choice on the way next, the empty white pages will be increasingly less. She has left her teaching job and now happily stays at home to 'paint in her pyjamas' as she herself puts it.
She can meet people, shake their hands and officially introduce herself as Sarah the book illustrator. Now that makes me smile.
Maybe if she knows that people will be reading this she will actually update people with what she is doing now, what she is inventing and painting, what characters will grace her crisp white pages and bring them to life. What her journey is. I'll even her let her do it in her pyjamas...for now at least.
x.
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