Today, the 10th August 2011 marks my 7th year anniversary of being a member on DA
What a seven years it has been on and off screen.

7 years ago i had an online friend i met on the old MSN chat rooms.  We  shared a love for music and ended up talking art one day.  I mentioned i liked to draw, she mentioned she liked to write poetry and showed me her DA account, from then on i was hooked.

As a 19 year old only child living at home with my dad i had a lot of time and a lot of teenage angst.  I spent many hours playing video games, listening to music and drawing so my first uploads were filled with alot of sadness

As time went on i met many artists and with that came much inspiration and new art forms.  From drawing, which i wasn't great at, came many experiments, my scrapbook tells a very obvious story of tried and failed art.

My list of art forms up til now includes, drawing, digital art [link] photography [link] photomanipulitions (mostly in horror) [link] fan art [link] and original characters [link] my zombie [link] poetry (don't even ask!) and more recently artisan crafts, food photography, recipes [link] and polymer clay art

As you look through my gallery over the years you can see a shift of not only different art forms but different emotions within them which coincided with events happening in my life at the time.  Like i implied before, 7 years ago i was in a very dark place in my life thanks to being practically house bound due to a social anxiety disorder, ibs and depression, a place i do not care to go back to, ever.  

5 years ago next month on september the 1st my mum died after 25 years of suffering horribly with the worst effects that MS can bring.  During the last ten years of her life she was bed bound, had a feeding tube in her stomach, had constant medication, could not move any muscle in her entire body, she could not even talk.  Unfortunately i do not remember much of her before that time as she was like this since i was 8 years old so have no idea as to what sort of a woman she was, i hate to ask my family as it upsets them.  I am not writing this for sympathy or anything i just loved her dearly, i am very proud to call her my mum and for her being such a fighter for so long.  I just want people to know about her and her fight as even through all the pain and suffering she went through her face would always light up every time me or my dad would walk into the room to visit her.  She is an inspiration to keep fighting through all that rubbish live throws at you for what you want and love.

3 months later i got pregnant with my eldest daughter Sarah. During pregnancy and Sarah being a newborn  i didn't go on DA at all until we moved into our own place.  As she got older i was inspired to make art again, out came my pencils and photoshop and my zombie was reborn [link] also i started doing more digital art and the mood started to lift within my art with the happiness i was feeling.  Photography also started to become a bit part of my life.  I finally saved up enough to get a decent camera and i have not stopped taking photos of everything and anything since.

Jumping forward two years to my youngest daughter being born, Sasha.  Now with two girls in my life something happened i never expected.  The girl inside me after always being a tomboy started to surface.  I find cute things cute not cringe worthy these days and discovered there is another colour other than black in this world, a shocker i know!  

Once Sasha got out of the needy newborn stage i decided i wanted to learn to bake for them as i wanted to know what was going in their food, reading ingredients and seeing lines upon lines of unknown ingredients scared me.  Never did i expect to love baking so much nor thought food photography would be so satisfying.  I really did not expect to be writing recipes and people to be using them either.

After baking for almost a year i decided to cut back a bit, my partners ever increasing waist line was not being helped by my baking so i wanted another art to get into, i wanted it to be a craft so just like baking other could enjoy it and i could use it for presents for family and friends.   Upon talking to my watchers, polymer clay seemed the way to go.  After almost a month of using FIMO i am loving it

After 7 years on DA all the hobbies i have tried has all been thanks to all you lovely people here on DA.  So thanks to all you watchers out there, both the chatty and the silent ones, i am thankful for each and everyone of you everyone else who pass through my page and leave such wonderful comments and inspiration.

I hope for those of you who maybe a little confused about the eclectic mix that is my gallery now understand why it is this way.  A lot can happen in 7 years both good and bad and i think it is important i leave it all in my gallery as a reminder to myself of the dos and the don'ts not only in art but in life



Take Care
Clare