Fabulous Friday Feature: LindaGJ on Etsy!

Welcome to the wonderful world of LindaGJ on Etsy, otherwise known as Visual Smiles Gallery. She is a remarkable artist who, like me, suffers daily from Fibromyalgia and yet still manages to be cheerful, outgoing, and make incredibly cheerful art. Here is a bit about her, and some great images of her art (click on the images to go to her Etsy site, where there is more wonderful art).
I recently won a set of her cards and a large print and I have to say the quality was phenomenal. If you are looking for beautiful art, this is not only quality, but a great value, as her prices are more than reasonable.
The Story: Really there is a story behind everything. I've always been an artist and my styles changed as I did. And now with the collages I plan to do, here is another change taking place. There is so much that has happened in my life as everybody...each trauma and good thing leads us to where we are now.
The Cats: A lot of my inspiration came from my true love "Peanut" my kitty that lived to be 20 & a lot of the illustrations you see in my shop, comes from a book I made while I was teaching art to little kids & also going through chemo for 2 solid years for hep c that I got from a transfusion in the 80's, and the rest is from all the art jobs I've done in Special Events as my paper mache started working on a haunted house! The first paper mache item I made was Peanut of course.
The Angel, Fish and Mermaid Sculptures: I was so into angels after my fiance got killed by a drive by and I was with him in La in 1989. So that is where my inspiration for angels came from. A fellow worker wanted a big fish, so that is where the fish come in. I had a dream about mermaids flying in heaven, that's where they came from.
The Dogs: The dogs came from the dogs I have known in my life and it just started when a girl that visited our Houston mini team meeting asked if I could do a Boston Terrier. But now I am venturing into collage art as my fibromyalgia is getting worse & my art is getting very difficult to do. I did my 1st collage as I just posted on my blog. The blog tells the story how that came about. See the blog here: http://lindagjones.blogspot.com/
This last trauma led me being disabled and practically home bound after a very exciting adventurous life. I found Etsy and that opened a brand new door. I met people with the same interests, met people that are also disabled,like you!!!! I have learned so much about all kinds of art I wouldn't necessarily be able to do, but that I find fascinating!!! I found a niche in making Etsy treasuries to support Houston. I found a whole new door open for me. Here is light at the end of every tunnel, a door shuts only to open another door. Life is fabulous, even when it's not your idea of what you had in mind for your life. And as a cliche...Life is not what you go through, but how you handle it.
Words to live by Linda, you are a true inspiration in addition to being a great artist and wonderful woman!

Please visit her Etsy store here: http://www.LindaGJ.etsy.etsy.com

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