“Worrying about scarcity is our culture’s version of post-traumatic stress. It happens when we’ve been through too much, and rather than coming together to heal (which requires vulnerability) we’re angry and scared and at each other’s throats.”

— Brené Brown

Some deets

Like any good story, there are a lot of plot twists and complicated explanations.  I’ve loved creating art for, well, as long as I can remember.  My lovely momma recognized this and nurtured it.  When it was time for me to go to college I decided to pour my creativity into what would earn a living, because money was in short supply.  So I worked full-time while attending college and when emergency after emergency started happening, I just never stopped.

Fast forward many years.  Enter the big PLOT TWIST… dun dun DUHHHHHH

In 2016, I was diagnosed with Cancer during what was already a very difficult year.  The good news was it wasn’t aggressive and was treatable by removing an organ.  We thought, “Good news!” and believed the recovery wouldn’t be too severe, but after a few months, I only got worse.  My doctors made limited progress diagnosing the problem so I had to go looking for answers.  However, I needed to return to work and life so I just “put on some gansta rap and handled it.”

I pushed on, until 7 months later a new doctor looked at me and said, “You have Lyme disease, I fought it for 17 years and you are like looking at a medical reflection of myself.”  I wasn’t sure. After all, I'd been tested 7 years earlier and was negative.  Well, he was right, and a new round of tests showed it was something I’d had for years.  As a result of the extreme stress that year caused by cancer, surgery, and grief my immune system finally lost the battle I’d been fighting for years.

The disease and co-infections had infiltrated my nervous system (brain infection), and cardiovascular system before I was diagnosed.  When I finally started treatment in October of 2017 I was so sick I could barely walk, think, or drive.

Wow, sad story right? Or is it?

The thing is, now, in so many ways I’m so much happier than I’ve ever been.  Yes, I’m still in treatment and it’s not easy but I’m becoming the me I was always meant to be. I doubt I would have ever quit my career and changed my life if I wasn’t broken like a glow stick.  Sometimes life is like a whisper, it’s only when you slow down and listen that you hear what’s most important.  Fear isn’t evil, but it can become evil if you let it control you. It can be a controlling and abusive asshat.  That’s the thing about living in scarcity, you are always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

In March of 2020 I resigned my position as a Creative Director days before the pandemic became real in America. Because it has been such a difficult year I started creating more of these “feel good muppets” for people to cheer them up. I wanted to make people feel special, and to help them remember that there is beauty and love even when things feel hopeless. I had no plan to keep creating them, or to love them so much. I really never expected others to react as they did, kinda like, “AWW, can I get one?.” Deep down, we all need the warm fuzzies to remind us of the good and this is how Just Feel Good Art was started!