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yesartrus · 7 years

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In the beginning...

MEET JEN SMITH

Greetings! I am Jen Smith, artist and designer. My blog will contain stories of my colorful life married to Lon Smith, also an artist. The work on my website represents both of our work.

I showed an early interest and aptitude in art and found it the best way to communicate to others my feelings. Later I turned to writing but my passion for art always existed and I was never in a job or situation where art wasn’t the main focus. I majored in art is high school and college and won awards and scholarships. I graduated from California Lutheran University with an average to low GPA but all A’s in my art classes. I found work as an artist before I graduated and was employed as soon as I got out of college and moved to the Southern California Desert where my parents had retired. My first job was for a printer and I learned a lot about the processes of offset reproduction. From there I became a graphic artist for a local newspaper. I painted all along in my spare time.

After I left the newspaper, I found my way into art and craft shows and my career as a fine artist began. My work was a little ahead of its time as far as styles and colors so I had moderate success. In an attempt to further myself financially I decided to open a custom picture framing shop and gallery. I had briefly worked for a couple of old maid sisters who ran a frame shop and although they didn’t ever pay me, I was able to glean a world of information and techniques as well as collecting a lot of prints to begin stocking my store. It was successful from the very start and I found myself with no time to create art. I was enjoying being in business for myself and I did have a beautiful gallery but my heart was sad that I couldn’t paint anymore.

As the season began I found myself overwhelmed by frame jobs and reached out to hire some help. I hired a spirited lady who was married to an artist and claimed to know all about framing. I hired her on the spot. Unfortunately she really didn’t know much and spent her time talking to the customers and taking orders while I worked alone in the back and fixed many of her mistakes. One wonderful thing came out of it though. Her husband came to pick her up from work one afternoon and we hit it off and I was smitten. I realized that this would go no where since he was a married man so I passed it off as having met an amazing person that I might meet again.

One day I was really jammed up and needed help so I called my gal. Her husband, Lon answered and told me that she was gone and wasn’t coming back. I expressed my sympathies but my heart jumped at the news. We talked long distance for two hours and he started coming over to get his work framed. I bought some originals from him for my gallery but they were not for sale. They were for my private collection.

One day we decided to meet for coffee at Bob’s Big Boy in Palm Springs. I lived on the south side of Palm Springs and he on the north. What neither one of us thought of was that there was a restaurant on each end of town. I went to the one closest to me and so did Lon. Both of us thought we had been stood up until I realized that there was another Big Boy on the other end of town so I beat feet towards it and there was Lon sitting madder than a wet hen. Later we laughed about it. From that point on we were never apart. I sold my frame shop and we moved to Catalina Island to start a new life. My life would never be the same having met Lon. He was a dynamo and so full of life and ideas and such a creative individual. Our minds meshed and we became as one.

Please check back for more stories of my life with Lon. I have so much to tell you.

Ars longa. Vita brevis.

Art is long. Life is short.

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