Re-Introduction Post to celebrate 1,000 followers.

Hello Steemit. My name is Dania; I am a 44 year old artist currently residing in Los Angeles.( who knows for how long this time) I just reached the milestone of 1,000 followers, so I thought I might try to do an introduction post right this time.

I grew up in an old victorian in the little town of Thomaston Maine. I was not really happy; but I probably should have been; I was lucky in many ways. Maine is a beautiful spooky state. Everyone read Steven King religiously and had a scary story of their own to tell; but not everything was out in the open. We had a family friend; for example; who could manipulate matter with his mind and read the history of objects by touching them; but we were not supposed to tell anyone because it was a secret. There were more secrets of that sort, but people do not talk about the darker things. I saw faces in the dark as a child and it frightened me; my parents just said it was shadows; I do not think they understood.

I lived in Western Mass from roughly 1992 to 2004 (Not counting a summer in Europe and a Year in LA). A beautiful area surrounded by mountains with the lushest summers and most colorful autumns .Because of the five colleges, it was a great place to be young. All the best bands played there and there were to many things to do, despite being in the middle of the woods. I can not find many photos of the time, but here is some artwork I made.

Constructed this for a class; it was created after I had suffered vertigo so badly I could not move. It was supposed to focus on composition. The teacher said it did not fit the assignment; to this day I disagree.

This piece was one I do not think I used for anything; it was going to be part of a final but I did not use it. It is still one of my favorite pieces. It expresses the emotions I was feeling of love for someone I know would never love me back. I do not think I ever want to feel like that again; it made me feel crazy.

This last picture is of a young man I cared for in college. He is not longer with us; I really miss him.

What else...my Europe trips in college were interesting. I went to a rave in Prague, stayed in a Manor in Ireland, a tent in Christiania, tried to do peoples portraits in London after I lost all my money, was attacked by sheep in Leeds, nearly froze to death on the Isle of Skye spent a week with a man who studied pictish stones on the "Black Isle" of Scotland, saw a free Ween show in Hungary and went to Amsterdam 3 times. I wish I had photos and art of that time; but I lost it all; ALL of it!

Did inspire some art though.

I also traveled around the US; I stayed in a trailer in Norther California, spent a week in Chicago, a summer in Philadelphia, stayed in a Wolf Sanctuary in Arizona, saw the Pixies in Florida, learned to build cob houses in Oregon and attended protests in New York and DC

I moved to Portland Maine to be near family and lived there from 2004 to 2016. I took many photos; quite a few that can be seen on my old photobucket account I won a few contests, showed a video piece in a festival and participated in a multi-media project; but I had trouble getting my foot in the door as an artist, and the long winters and the tough job of being a CNA began to get to me. I felt myself getting older and I needed to feel alive again. So after some tearful goodbyes with my family and cat, I moved back to LA.

As I had said before; I had already moved to LA twice. The first time was a bit of a fail: I worked in a phone call center and as a movie extra. I might have had a future as an extra if I had not moved back to Massachusetts to care for a friend; I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had stayed.

The second was...interesting at least. I stayed in a tent at occupy LA and tried in vain to find work.

This last time in LA has been the most fullfilliing and interesting. I have secured an exhibition studio at the Hive Gallery Downtown; a fun gallery with great art shared with a lot of interesting characters.

Here is my space after I first painted it red

Here is it before I painted it grey a few months ago.

and here it is now.

Here is where I work and one of my latest unfinished projects.

I will slowly be filling up my steepshot account so I have a portfolio on the steemit blockchain handy for showing my work. Here is the link if you want to check it out. (Presented in squares like instagram but if you click on them you can see the entire image)
https://alpha.steepshot.io/@twirble

I have visited some beautiful places since I moved back to Los Angeles;

Malibu:

Vaquez Rocks:

Sequoia National Forest:

There are some recent posts I have made about things I have seen and done; but here older entries that would be harder to find.

Art Walk/Arts District

Kern River Valley

Venice Beach

Sequoia National Forest

Thank you if you have read this far; I may be editing this in the morning but I have spend over three hours on it tonight so I am calling it done; however rough it is. Nice meeting everyong and I hope to get to know LA steemians at the meetup February 26th:) (Not involved in organizing the meetup; I just want more people to know about it)

I will leave you with some cute doggoes on the bed.