Good Evening...

Well this is obviously the place where I am supposed to introduce myself to you, so hello and I am pleased to meet you.

First and foremost, I am a High Octane mystic which makes life in the so called 'normal' realm a little challenging. It's funny, During a conversation with my father a few weeks ago and he was saying something about me never doing my homework and being lazy, and I asked him.... "Was that it, or was there another reason..." and he said, "You already knew everything." Bingo! on O63 papa. So, they do have schools for people like me by now I hope...

Yeah, so I finally decided to just be open about it and say, Hey, I'm WAY different and I like it that way.

So, now that we have gotten that out of the way, no, I don't have any degrees or diplomas to shock and awe you with. Not that I know of, unless you include the school of Fort Knox of the imaginal realm, or Jerusalem 78. But seriously, I had a dispute in high school over dissecting the frog and it was an ultimatum and I walked out the door. I eventually finished in parts and got 100% in advanced math... but oops.... had kids... 3 awesome kids.

I did however enjoy decorative painting immensely for a number of years. I started with a handful of lessons through a church group, then a handful of private lessons, and it was enough to give me a foundation to start pushing myself. I especially loved the work of Jo Sonja Jansen. She included history, chemistry, story and dream in her books, products and designs. So much inspiration. I taught a lot of classes, taught at a handful of conventions, and had a couple of my designs published in magazines. I was very passionate about it for a long time, but it was difficult in Eastern Canada to make money at it as the process of painting functional items is far more time demanding than painting on a canvas, yet not appreciated in the degree it should be.

In hindsight, the fact that I was 8 months pregnant should NOT have deterred me when I got an opportunity to sell my hand painted glass ornaments to Neiman Markus (kick self profusely). I was so exhausted I just looked at the guy as if he had three heads and declined.

In the meantime, I had also taught myself web design and graphic arts/digital painting, so you will find examples of my work on this site. I have come to really enjoy digital painting. It provides me with tools and abilities that aren't so readily available otherwise and I keep my clothes clean, lol.

My main personal passion is music. I played piano for years as a child, and play hand drums whenever I can now. I have a darbuka and a riq, both from Egypt and a frame drum from Ontario. Again, self taught so hoping for some foundation lessons some day. I don't play the frame drum as often as the others. I eventually want to get a full drum kit. Rhythm is natural and I find drums to be beyond awesome. I had begun picking up the guitar about 23 years ago, and was getting pretty good quickly, so it is something I would most definitely like to work on again as well as pick up so many other incredible instruments that fill my imagination. There is a web site called Lark in the Morning that is like heaven for musicians. Ahhh, in my dreams.

Judy Carolyn Schapiro