My love for creating art has magnified as I have dedicated myself to learning new skills sketching and painting. Saying yes 2 years ago to hiring Janessa as my art coach has been life changing. What I knew I needed was having someone to keep me on track with my goals. When I have been self critical, with her help I have discovered a supportive inner mind set that has given me the determination to keep on going. What I thought was impossible for me, has opened up everything that is possible!

This was a really fun project bring life back to a vintage paper machè that was over 100 years. Manny Moe and Jack (The PepBoys) should be around for at least another 100 more 👏🎨👩🏻‍🎨 I made this process video for Instagram so please feel free to follow me there as well IG: @janessabookoutart and @art.workaholic

Oh and just in case your other Skool students look at that digital drawing and say “this guy’s an artist”?, I’d like to offer evidence of my former skills from a sketch I did for a cousin several years ago as prelude to a painting I gave her for her birthday. Hopefully, everyone will figure out who it is.

I’ve been away from art for over a year after going through a terrible hospital stay due to failure of a pump in my body that sends morphine to my back due to an injury and failed surgery 20 years ago. I loved art and had worked on it for 17 years as a passion and a therapy but I had no interest at all after I recovered from withdrawal … until I found Janessa Bookout. I had purchased her excellent book “Artworkaholics” in the hope of jump-starting my work and re-igniting a fervor for art. In the preface Janessa offered a free 15 minute consultation so I took it and that’s when I “met” Janesssa and I was (and continue to be) so impressed with her work ethic - she’s like the Schwarzenegger of art - as well as her compassion and desire to help people who want to be artists … and that’s saying something because most people who went to art school like Janessa don’t have much time for “amateur” artists and “Sunday Painters” but Janessa has time for everyone who is committed to working to achieve something artistic. So it took me a while but I have been doing a few sketches. Now my interest has turned to digital art and the other day I did my first digital portrait as a tribute to Janessa. It isn’t very good but the feeling I got from working on it was so great that I decided to post it anyway. It’s based on a beautiful photo of Janessa. I hope to improve upon it but as it is it says “you go girl” and is a minor tribute to a great lady and wonderful artist and mentor. God bless you J!

After creating the artwork for the 2025 MSA Classic Invitational, an annual surf contest hosted by the Malibu Surfing Association, I was also happy to host my artist booth and coffee bar for the weekend live at the contest Sept 6-7 on the beach in Malibu.