(Karen)

This morning I went to visit Karen. Karen is an artist and she attended the September Success Teams. When she came along on the first night she did so because she wanted to make time for her painting but couldn’t see how that might be possible. She was working long hours at a job that paid the mortgage and there didn’t seem to be any space in her life for painting.

(Work in Progress)

About week three Karen still had no more time but the beginnings of a dream had started to form as she told her team about an idea for an art gallery with coffee shop. Then disaster struck…. Karen took a tumble and broke some bones in her right arm along with her shoulder joint. She was in terrible pain and couldn’t work…. what a disaster…. or was it?

(Detail from one of Karen’s paintings)

Ok, the pain was terrible and she did need a lot of help from her very patient partner, but… now she had time…. (and she’s left-handed!) So she started painting. She hasn’t recovered enough to go back to work but when she does she intends to keep a space in her life for painting.

(Tools of the trade)

Now she has begun to sell her paintings, (you can see one in Roundwood post office) and soon she’ll be launching a website with her work (I’ll let you know when its up and running). She’s also started taking commissions and she’s thinking of starting an art group from her home in the Wicklow hills.

Don’t wait to break your arm to follow your dreams, Mairead.