From Starving to Surviving to Prospering

[Evelyn]

I started on my journey as a full-time artist in Petersburg, VA in 2002. I was never made to work for anyone else. I have always gotten in trouble at school and my many jobs for drawing on any type of paper I could get a hold of, showing up late and having a negative attitude towards my work. I have worked over thirty different types of jobs in my lifetime. Almost one for every year that I have existed on this earth! It is because some of us are born to be free to do their own thing in this world. The call for me to draw, paint, sing has been so powerful that I have made enemys of people who have tried to advise me "for my own good, to settle down, grow up and get my head out of the clouds." I am feeling down right now because my car is on it's last legs, I am still homeless and I see no way out of my current situation. I have to manufacture fake enthusiasm on a daily basis just to keep going.
In spite of how difficult things are for me right now, I know that many folks envy my life. I am free to work for myself rather than waste my valuable energy on someone else's dream. Also, when I am struggling, my art and my singing tends to really move people because I transfer my pain into my pieces or my music.
I know that once I can find my audience, my battle with homelessness and unreliable transportation will be over and I will have a different set of problems to solve in my life.