Hello everyone! I’m so happy that you could join us on this new creative blog. Please take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
My name is Kari J Young and I am the creator of this encaustic painting group. Two years ago I was working in the Corporate world feeling VERY unhappy and unfulfilled in my life. I was doing all the things that I was “supposed” to be doing. I had a good job at a bank with nice people, a nice boss, a 401k plan, profit sharing, nice salary, etc. I was about to turn 40 and suddenly started to take a good look around. Was this truly where I thought I’d be at 40? Was this the life that I had imagined for myself?! My heart cried out, “HELL NO!!” I remembered seeing a plaque that my mom had hanging on the wall at her house. It read, “Its later than you think”. OMG!! I very hesitantly, yet with great passion, flipped my life upside down. I decided that I was going to reprioritize everything in my life and focus on the most important things. I quit my job and along the way found another job that supports my creative pursuits, allows for an easy day which leaves me with tons of energy to paint and/or maintain my business.
So here I am and here you are too. Let’s connect, share our artwork on this site and support one another.
I looking forward to reviewing work to post on this site. Please let other artists know about this site so that we can create a good “global” community of artists.
Looking forward to hearing from you and receiving your images. You can e-mail images to: info@kariyoung.com
Wow..it is amazing how similarities we share…I turned 40 in July this year and a year ago was an executive director of a womyn’s organization…after 16 long years as a social worker, quit my job and began this career as a fulltime artist and facilitator….LOVE IT SO MUCH and am so glad I did it now….One of the greatest books to encourage me to do this was the book by Tama Kieves: “This Time I Dance”..it was amazing and a life altering book to read.
Thanks for sharing your journey with the universe.
Supria
Comment by Supria Karmakar — December 18, 2008 @ 8:34 pm
Supria,
Thank you very much for the book recommendation (This Time I Dance!: Creating the Work You Love). I have created a link to it on the right hand side of this blog and have ordered it for myself. I love reading recommended books. I am currently reading and am almost finished with: Twyla Tharp: The Creative Habit, Learn It & Use It For Life. I didn’t relate to everything in the book but I did find some very good words of wisdom and techniques that I am now using. I now get up at 5:30am every week-day morning and jog (when its not snowing!!) 2 miles a day. I love it! I never thought I would EVER get up that early AND run too. It gets my morning started on a great note.
I love meeting people who have similar stories. Its uplifting to think that there are so many people out there making changes in their life that move them towards the life they were meant to be living.
)
Comment by Kari J Young — December 19, 2008 @ 11:22 am
Hi Kari! Your work is great! I ‘discovered’ encaustis about a year ago and just love it. It really takes your soul on a journey, to where you never really know or how you got there. A friend of mine mentioned the word encaustic and my enquiring mind searched further. It is an amazing medium with yet so many discoveries to be made!
Great blog and what a wonderful idea to bring artists together in this way.
Pat
Comment by onawhimsey — March 1, 2009 @ 12:35 am