New Blog, another New Adventure

I've been absent from the crafting community that birthed me as an artist for quite some time. Yet, echoes still filter through every now and then. I realize that my work and my former nom de plume still float in the web-verse and are remembered by many. I find I'm picking up those forgotten threads, viewing them with new eyes, and new ideas, a new mindset and a new life.

I am the artist formerly known as Anna Banana Stamps. I designed stamps for several companies, even my own for a very brief time, sadly some of those companies no longer exist. I was published in all the popular rubber stamping/ paper crafting magazines and sadly some of those are no longer in print. I still have the stamp sets (mostly), the samples and tear sheets. I am ashamed to admit, much of it gathers dust in a box under a bed or in the back of a closet. I have albums of ATCs I traded, and scrapbooks of travels and memories. Boxes, frames, scrapbooks and more of art, photography...

I sold supplies and held classes and workshops in my own home. From there I went to work in a scrapbook retail store, a boutique that was shut down in 2007, after I started classes at college. I finished my degree - working in various portrait studios and even as a traveling portrait photographer. For a brief time, I worked as an image editor / photographer for an online retail store. While in school, my art became a class assignment or quick holiday cards and gifts for loved ones. Its circle shrank for a while. I even thought of putting it away altogether.

I had many life changes besides earning my Bachelors degree at 42. My two sons grew up and left the nest, and a difficult marriage ended. I met a wonderful man who brightens my world unlike any other. Some relationships and friendships ended, others were reconciled, and new ones cherished.

Life isn't so much a circle as a spiral, things may look similar, but are different problems or blessings to be reconciled.

I started selling, designing and submitting my art following a serious car accident, while I dealt with some serious health issues. 5 dark years were followed by 5 wonderful, bright years. A recent accident has posed a challenge, but I have conquered it once, I have faith I will again. And what will get me through? Art of course. Art for arts sake.