 Hello, and welcome back to my YouTube channel. If you're new here, let me introduce myself. My name is Sandy Olnok, and I'm an artist. I work in a lot of different mediums, apparently now a wall paint. And I work on projects from small, mailable things, which you're gonna see in this video, to large and frameable things. And everything in between. My mission in life is to help you grow as an artist. So if there's anything I can do for you, resources I can provide, do let me know. And introduce yourself in a comment because I'd like to know where you're from, what kind of art do you make? What kind of mediums do you work in? All right, I am sitting in front of this wall. And this is the wall that many of you voted on here on YouTube. And I chose the darker color. There was a split vote between all of you. And I chose the darker color because I like drama. You know me, love my contrast. And this color is gray in some light. And other times it turns a delicious blue. It's based on a painting. And I'll talk about that in a future video when I give you a tour of the DIY stuff I've been working on in a future video. But it's just a delicious color. And I thought you'd like to see the results of what you voted on. The story I'll be sharing with you today has a lot about this DIY adventure, how it came about, how I powered through it using my superpowers and some of the kryptonite that hit me along the way as well. And then at the end, I'll bring it back around to how my superpowers and my kryptonite play into my artwork as well. And hopefully by the time we're all done, you're gonna be thinking differently about what your artistic superpowers might be and how you can employ them in your work. All right, let's get started. Contrary to popular belief, my superpower is not some natural inclination toward drawing, painting, or other artistic venture. It's not a magic trick. But my superpower is one I discovered a long, long time ago and it's helped me to become a better artist day by day, my whole life. It was back when I was in my 20s and it was from something that was not art related at the time. As a brand new college grad, I signed up for all the credit cards when applications arrived in my mailbox. I didn't have any financial education. I didn't understand interest rates or minimum payments, none of it. And after a not all that long period of time, I found myself almost $30,000 in the hole. I didn't even realize it since I had divvied it among so many credit cards over a couple of years. But when I added it all up, I was petrified. It felt like there was no way out at all. Once I got over that initial shock though, my inner superpower rose up. The ability to give up immediate gratification for an epic goal ahead. I found myself willing to eat more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches than is probably healthy for a human being. I wore clothes that I'd had for a decade, didn't buy new ones. I would say no to going out even if I really wanted to. My big goal was to climb out of this giant hole that I had dug because I knew I'd never get on with my life until that happened. And for the rest of my life, I've saved up for what I wanted. I had seen my superpower. I'm like a dog with a bone, I do not give up. And I started the practice of setting a goal for something that I wanted to do or buy and then putting that money into my don't touch this account, AKA my savings account. And I just pretended it didn't exist once it went in there. And I was able to save for a ton of goals over the course of my life. Yes, I missed out on small things along the way, but I wouldn't trade a night of partying with my pals for the bigger wins that I was fighting for. That willingness to suffer is my superpower and I don't take it for granted. Only one in three Americans can comfortably cover a $400 emergency expense. And being able to save this way, my way, is not easy. I mentioned my superpower came into play recently. I've been saving for two huge things for about 10 years. The first one is a medical issue. I'm not gonna get into detail, so please respect my privacy. I don't need another mom telling me what to do with my healthcare. But just know that it's not life and death, don't worry. But if I don't address it, it's possible that it will steal my eyesight, which obviously will impact my art. And it's also not covered by insurance, so it's gonna be something that I need to handle completely out of pocket. So I started saving for it. The second goal was to finally replace my carpet. And I've saved up for that. I've been living in this house for 23 years and at almost every point, I had either baby dogs or baby cats going through potty training or elderly ones who were losing the bladder control. And at some point, carpet stains just get to be awful and irreparable. I had saved up what was needed by the start of 2022, but my last kitty was still around and I was super happy she was living a really long life. She and her brother had claimed my bedroom years before and I was even happy to give that up to the kitties. And I slept in the studio for the last six years. My bigger goal was happy kitties. Well, my don't touch this fund was raring and ready to roll until 2022 hit. Inflation was eating away at my regular income as it was doing with everybody and crazy things started happening. Stuff like my furnace gave up the ghost. I dug into the don't touch this fund to replace the furnace. And then another thing went wrong and another and the hits kept coming. Appliances, the car, some huge business expenses. A much needed trip to see my elderly mom who I had not seen in many years. And while I'm super grateful that I built up that savings, I was watching it start to disappear like sand slipping through my fingers. When my washer and dryer died last fall, I drew the line. I just said, that's it. No more taking from this savings account. And I committed to hand washing my clothing and hanging it to dry all around my house. Basically, I decided to be pioneer woman. Once I got my tax refund in the spring, I was able to get a new washer and dryer about a month ago after nine months of realizing how glad I was to be alive now and not in the 1800s because all that hand washing is no fun. Well, by last fall, when my last kitty finally did pass away, my savings was cut in half. I could replace the carpet or I could pay for the doctor visits that are gonna start in the fall. And for a time, I just put off making a choice. I just decided not to think about it. I had learned to tolerate the nasty carpet and I had gotten used to sleeping in the studio. So maybe waiting a few years on replacing the carpet would be all right. But then a couple of months ago, my sister said she was coming to town for a conference this summer and she'd love to stay with me. Now, I said yes immediately. Not gonna say no to my sister, but I was in a momentary panic. I had not let a soul into the house in years except for that furnished repair guy because of my shame over the condition of my home. I wrestled with it. If I replaced the carpet, I'd have nothing left in the fall for the doctors. So fixing up the house could mean delaying healthcare for a few years. But I also realized my life had become unsustainable in this house. I started to see how people became those hoarders that you see on TV. For me, it started with just a few cardboard boxes piled in the living room waiting to be taken to the recycle bin. And then the dining room table started to act like a magnet for anything I didn't feel like putting away. The fact that nobody would ever be allowed into my house led my piles of junk to get bigger. And the laundry drying across the furniture created even more chaos. So over the last year, the house just got worse. And I realized just how much shame was building up in me if I didn't even want my own family to come and visit. I decided that my savings would be spent on the house and I'll think about my health later. That very moment, I got busy. That superpower of mine, it kicked into gear. I started going through every single room, pile by pile, corner by corner, sorting. What to keep, what to toss, what to donate. Every spare minute for months now has been spent on this task up really early in the morning working at it till late at night. Back pain and exhaustion, no nevermind. Just gonna keep plowing ahead. A dear friend of mine offered to come and help me but I couldn't bring myself to accept her help. I couldn't face her if she saw what had become of me. That's my kryptonite asking for and accepting help. Then I had to call the carpet folks to get the process going and they had to come out to measure for new flooring. That day had me so stressed out. I had done about half of the sorting and tidying that was needed but not all of it. I hid a few things in closets and under the bed but I made the guy promise not to look at the floors. Yeah, I know it was a ridiculous thing to say but he understood, he was very kind although I had no wonder what he really thought of this crazy woman. Once I picked the flooring he said it would be about two weeks for the product to come in and then another two to maybe get the install scheduled. So I instructed my superpower to keep going. Sort, sort, sort, clean, clean, clean. Then I painted all the rooms. Since I could do that without worrying about protecting the current flooring it seemed the easiest to do at this time. But then I had another kryptonite moment. I was somehow paralyzed over the color decision for the main living room. My friend who I had held at arm's length offered again to come help and this time I texted to ask her to come over and she nearly ran to my house. I made her also promise not to look at the floors and she too was very kind and helpful and encouraging. Best cheerleader ever. Since she now knew how big a step it was for me to let her in to see my failure. Well the dates changed on the carpet. Things started happening sooner than expected. So my superpower drive to just keep my eyes on the prize kept me on that ladder painting high walls into the wee hours I ended up completing almost everything of what I had planned to do before the installation and carpets went in this week. It feels like I'm in a whole new house. I even have new toilets after the old ones proved they couldn't handle being moved while the flooring was installed. So yeah new toilets baby. I have some art to paint on the walls themselves. So I'll wait till some of that is complete before I do a video walk through. Now you're probably wondering how this superpower applies to art. After all that's what you come here for not me just whining about my life situations. Well my superpower gives me the drive to practice and practice and practice more until I get something till I learn it. I'm not afraid of hard work. I'm not afraid of drawing the same thing three dozen times to really understand it. I challenge you to think about your own superpower. If you expand your mind to identify the awesome qualities you exhibit as a human and you have awesome qualities then think about how you can apply those in your art. I'll bet you'll discover some practices that will help you to conquer your own obstacles. You don't have to be a wacky person like me who likes to voice suffering on herself but look for your best powers and use those. But then there's kryptonite. Our faults in life can also be our faults in art. For me that fear of letting someone else help that makes it difficult for me to admit that I can't do it all but I need other people. And to that end I'm going to need the community's help in the coming months. I've wiped out the do not touch this fund which I think needs to be renamed since I keep touching it. It took me 10 years to build that up and I don't expect I'm gonna get that back over the summer. That's not what I'm looking for but I would like to sleep better at night by taking some steps toward rebuilding a little bit of a nest egg for the eventuality in case whatever happens. I may go to a specialist and they'll say, hey, you don't have to do anything for another five years. If you're a praying person add that to your prayer list. But I'd like to ask if you're able to help, please do but helping can be as easy as helping yourself. Helping yourself to a class. I have a sale on right now in the month of June 2023, 10% off all adult classes. Using code superpower just browse the website and check out what classes are on offer. There's over a hundred there. You could also pick up a DigiStamp otherwise known as a printable in my world or you could maybe buy a painting for a birthday gift. Anything you can do would be much, much appreciated. You could also become a patron. Patreon is a website where people give a few dollars a month in order to support my work and they get various rewards at various levels. I've created two new levels in which the funds are gonna be wholly deposited into the do not touch this fund and they are $12 a month or $22 a month. I made them weird numbers so I could track them in my spreadsheet. But if you wanna give specifically to that savings goal that would be a great place to do it. And when you join Patreon, you will fall into the regular Patreon flow which means every weekend you'll get an exclusive post that nobody else gets to see but patrons and there's polls in there, sneak peeks, early access, sometimes videos, just all different kinds of things plus you'll get a card from me in the mail. And if there's news on the medical front then the only place I'm really gonna share much of that and all is going to be in the two levels at Patreon they're exclusively for that because who wants their private medical business splashed around the web as internet gossip, right? One other option would be to join Art Venture. And if you have not joined yet, it's free to join but I would ask that you consider taking one of the classes there. There's $4 classes and $8 classes, they're not expensive and those were created with the hopes that they would pay for the platform itself because right now the money to pay for the platform has been coming out of, you guessed it, the do not touch this fund thing has just been, yeah. It's been ransacked. So take one of those really simple, very inexpensive classes and be part of supporting the platform itself and then get engaged, go post your work and engage with others on theirs. As a working artist with a superpower of not being afraid of hard work then you can look forward to a summer with lots of new class releases. I'm gonna be doing a lot of mini classes like I did last summer because we're all busy but you might be able to fit in a mini class in various mediums. I'll be doing all different kinds of things. There's a wash jumpstart class that I'm starting to work on that's coming up, lots of fun to be had. Plus I'm gonna be opening up a few commission spots in the near future so stay tuned for that. Make sure you're subscribed and I will see you again very soon in the meantime. Go out and create something every day and I made it every day. Bye now.