About

You know, this is likely the page I ponder most yet update least on this blog.

If you could see my desk at the moment you’d understand how difficult it is to write a few paragraphs about oneself when she is copiously preoccupied with everything else but that which is in front of her. Life has a way of intermingling into our thoughts in attempts to control our behavior in the physical world and sometimes it’s just nuts how much one can bounce from thing to another. I’ll tell ya though I’d rather be bouncing than down on my luck spiritually, mentally or physically and even financially.

I’m grateful for a vivid imagination and as such I rarely complete that everything that distracts me, although it does get done eventually. Life is good.

As I approach middle age I wonder what it was like to be middle aged at 20, two hundred years ago? I would be close to death today, by those standards, and oddly enough met the grim reaper around that age after suffering through Crohn’s disease. I did lose about five years of living life during this time period to doctors, surgeries, prescribed pills and to intrusive medical tests that made you vomit from every hole in your body. Well, let’s just say the human body can endure and heal and recover and ultimately, move on.

I admire doctors but honestly they can only heal you if you have the strength to want it enough.

So, I’m glad it’s not one hundred years ago. I’ve also recovered from numerous addictions and most recently from Hypothyroidism.

During my teens I dated a boy who was physically and emotionally violent and it was a struggle to finally break away from the abuse at age 17. At age 19 after dating a few different people, I moved away to Fredericton and lived with and later married a wonderfully artistic man. We went through art college together and we loved each other dearly but grew apart romantically. I divorced him after eight years of being together. Talking to the reaper really makes you decide what is important and what isn’t. We ultimately didn’t want the same things from life.

After the marriage breakup I moved back to my hometown of Saint John and in with my parents. I found an apartment and got a job working as a graphic designer. At the same time I began using club drugs and partying a lot but not so much that it interfered with my work or life. I had studied illustration and graphic design at the New Brunswick College of Craft & Design in Fredericton from 1992 to 1996 and was enjoying working in this field. Well, I got laid off of my job in late 2003 and decided on a whim to move West with a friend in early February 2004.

We settled into Vancouver life and it wasn’t too long before I met the true love of my life in more ways than one. I fell in love with a man and also fell in love with drugs. I partied hard and studied even harder as I had returned back to college at Langara for one year of intensive upgrading training in the field of Graphic design. I succumbed to addiction shortly after graduating while working 60+ hours per week as an art director in 2004. It took three attempts and quitting my career for good to finally clean up from GHB addiction. I’ve been sober off chemicals for close to six years now.

My boyfriend abruptly left in late 2006. I rapidly descended into poverty and struggled to even feed myself all the while staying clean and off those hard drugs. This blog was born in hopes of finding another way of life, one that was holistic and didn’t involve me having to work 9 to 5 or worse selling my soul to the communications, advertising and marketing industries.

I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 34 and do not take medication for it. I live and work from home and have a couple of awesome roommates.

I come from a hard working and kind family. They mean the world to me and oddly enough I moved back to the very same neighborhood that I grew up in and live, all but four blocks away from my folks here in Saint John.

Art has been the one thing that has been with me since a very early age. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing or in the least thinking about drawing. I spend much more on art supplies that I do on clothing in a year. I also garden during the warmer months.

I make art on fascinating papers using watercolour, coloured pencils, inks and pens. I paint on wood too.

To buy my fine art go to http://etsy.com/shop/JessicaDoyle

Or visit http://jessicadoyle.bigcartel.com (under construction) and download premium high resolution images for your personal use licensed under a Creative Commons Copyright License. Nice eh!

I create, photograph, list, blog and package, ship, email, write, book-keep and manage most of my own business affairs. It’s funny how a bit of writing about an about page clears the head enough to clean the desk.

This blog’s comment policy.

Having lived on both coasts of Canada I can say I’m “Back-East” now eh!

I am 37 and happy.

I accept donations to this blog to keep it running. Your donation will go towards the purchase of art supplies and web related costs of running this blog. Thank you!

Ways to get in touch with me:

• Email – HandmadeCloud AT gmail DOT com
• Facebook – http://facebook.com/JessicaDoyleArt
• Skype by appointment only
• Mailing Address:
  Jessica Doyle
  40 Park Ave.
  Saint John NB E2J 1R4
  Canada