Empowering-SunFlowers
I’ve been an artist since I was two years old and here is the photograph to prove it. See, I’ve always been the Sunflower Girl – I just didn’t know what it meant way back when. Even as a child I enjoyed creating my beautiful world.
As I grew up, my hobby was painting. I took private lessons four days a week and it became part of who I was, eventually earning me a Bachelor of Fine Art in painting. Then I moved out to Colorado to find a gallery and was so put out when I couldn’t and realized that I had to “find a job.”
I became passionate about working with children, so I decided to get my Masters degree in Education and teach Kindergarten. Boy what a joy that has been for all of these years. The love of teaching masked the lower pay and no benefits – especially since I had a husband who could very easily provide for me.
Around 30, it was time for my greatest masterpieces of all time – my sonflowers. I threw everything to the side to raise my two amazing boys. I loved every second of it too! I still do even though they are both adults now.
I wanted the best private school education possible for them, so I used my masters degree and extensive experience to teach at the exact school I wanted them to attend. It worked out perfectly, and that private school gave them so many opportunities growing up. We lived with beauty all around us as we learned in nature and on the lake until graduation. My boys also ended up at the private colleges of their dreams. They are smart and very well adjusted young men.
I know mine is not a typical story – it really was grand!
Well, not all of it. There is a part of my story that isn’t as beautiful as the world I created for me and my sonflowers. For various reasons that I don’t want to discuss here, I left the breadwinner of my family, which was life changing in more than one way. Transitions are always difficult and I was diving head first into several.
I was determined to handle my transitions with grace and beauty. I was still going to have the best family that I could.
I started a daily yoga practice and started my painting practice again. I painted a whole mess of gorgeous sunflowers, an empowering process for me. They became big sellers for me and I became officially known as The Sunflower Girl.
Those two practices — painting and yoga — kept me afloat while living in a toxic marriage. They also kept me afloat when I decided to leave the security of my world. After years of settling for all the bullshit – I let him go. Right at the same time that my oldest was headed for college.
I became the Sunflower Warrior Girl.
The story is ugly. Too messed up to write it all down.
I am not the girl on the Jerry Springer show, damn it, I’m the sunflower girl – the one that creates beauty and speaks of EMPOWERMENT.
When my first son was ready to go off to college, I had the idea to create sonflower paintings–one for him, and one for me. I then started creating sonflower paintings for other moms and college-bound children — the mom kept one, and the child took one off to college.
This concept has been very successful and translated in so many ways. For instance, I had a client purchase a sunflower painting for herself and another for a friend undergoing treatment for breast cancer. These sonflowers have been purchased for other transitions as well – an aging parent transitioning into a cozy and assisted living environment.
For these individuals, the sonflower/sunflower paintings are symbols of empowerment and transition. The parent being empowered to let her child go, and the child being empowered to step forth into a new, unknown adventure. The best friends who grew up together – no matter what age – but are now moving apart. Partners confessing their love for each other – like a promise ring. These cozy little paintings symbolize love, power and change.
Although I paint far more than sunflowers today, I am still the Sunflower Girl, bringing beauty and empowerment into the lives of others.
I am an expressionistic / intuitive painter, so each of my Sonflowers are very different and tend to be a surprise when they come out. I do have some to peruse and purchase. But my specialty is making them to order. If you are interested in purchasing a set of SonFlowers please fill out the Sonflower Manifesting Form below.
Ps Sonflowers are for girls too! Besties love to buy them for birthdays and such. Anniversaries love a little love too.
