Saturday, July 10, 2010

The Husband's First Blog

So, who am I?

My name is Terry, a happily married man and father of one child, my 11 month old son, Elijah. I am a full-time motorcycle instructor for the military and recently finished a 5 year contract with the USMC as an Arabic Linguist. I am a lover of adventure, nature, language, travel, music and learning. I am called kind and intelligent by most, resourceful and ambitious by some, and an artist by none. But I am the artist's husband.

My wife is Yevgenia Watts. A wonderful watercolorists with passion for her work and the talent to get her noticed, she nevertheless is not a great businesswoman. She's actually not even one to socialize much, without my prodding, that is.

She immigrated to the United States in 2003 with her family after having spent most of her life in Ukraine. She developed an interest in art at a young age and has cultivated that interest for the majority of her life. Once in the States however, she decided to forgo an education in art for something more "useful". After receiving her degree in architecture from UC Berkeley, and promptly realizing that the industry was nigh impossible to enter into, she slowly began to return to her artistic roots. During her pregnancy, with little to no work, and full days to ponder herself and her future, and spurred by the purchase of one of her paintings from a coworker of mine, she began to consider a future as an artist.

Now, when do I come in? A little over a month ago...

Early in the year, we began discussing the possibility of turning her art into a profitable venture.. and that was about it. No ideas, no plans, no nothing really. Just a tiny hope of a better, boss-free future.

A little over a month ago we attended the Carlsbad Street Fair in Carlsbad, CA. While there, I poked and prodded and in truth, tried to force my wife to talk to the other artists who were displaying their works. Of course, she resisted me like a boulder, as she typically does whenever I try to force her to do anything. So, after eventually deciding that she wasn't going to follow my suggestion to get more information, she surprised me by initiating conversation with the next artist we found, a fellow watercolorist. It was from these wonderful people, Mary and Eric Helmreich, that we finally found the inspiration and guidance we needed try and begin to promote her as an artist.

This blog will share some of those experiences, my own potential path to artistic expression, and life as an artist's husband.


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