Start from the beginning. Do all things with love.

It is never too late to start all over again. To be honest, I never thought I’d be an artist— at least, not while growing up in suburban NJ. The expectations were somewhere else— music, college, “respectable” jobs… by the time I was 18, I had committed to 4 years of college with no idea really what I had signed up for. It wasn’t until studying abroad in Paris (which fortunately cost less than a year’s tuition), that I came to discover a part of myself I hadn’t known was there. I signed up for a drawing/painting class at the Louvre. The ladies in the class loved my “pommes” (apples in pastel), and the instructor was rigorous but I knew she meant well, insisting that my oranges needed to be “more luminous.”.. I had taken the class on a whim, but it triggered something. And then later that year, when I met a “real” artist who inspired me with his sketches in the park— I realized that life might be holding something new and undiscovered for me.

And so I went to design school and another chapter started.

Sometimes it’s an unexpected turn of events that leads you somewhere new. It’s a book with an old torn-up dusty cover that contains something brilliant. It’s an old place that reinvents itself before your eyes as a haven. If nothing else, I’ve seen that life contains the unexpected, and if you’re willing to be open to it, you might be able to harvest what it has to offer. The beginning is letting go of the old you. Accepting disappointment. The truth is, the works you see on this website are only 1/4 of what I’ve produced, and the other 3/4 ended up in the recycling bin. So, cheers to new beginnings, mistakes, and mayhem.

P.S. Wishing you a speedy, safe quarantine…virtual hugs and kisses, and all the love. xoxoxo JHeloise