Dearest you,

When I was in fourth grade, I wanted to be a fashion designer. For 12 years, until age 22, this was what I wanted to be.

Then I worked in fashion in NYC, and... nope. No thank you. Uh uh.

But you know what I actually loved doing as a child when I first thought I wanted to be a fashion designer? I loved and adored and was obsessed with drawing people in pretty outfits. I would get the newest issues of Katy Keene and Betty & Veronica and draw them and my ideas for what they should wear (Betty ALWAYS looked the best because that underappreciated girl deserved it!).

Fast forward to college. I decided to go for the "stable" career and studied to be a writer (you know that I can hear you laughing from here, right?). Well, I became and still am a writer! But I missed drawing. So, in 2014, I started drawing again.

Why 2014, 14 years after college graduation? That was when my mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer (I always have to follow up that statement with this one: she was not a smoker). She was given three months to live, but this stubborn and amazing woman fought hard for two years. In that time, and since that time, I turned to my old love of drawing. It helped when my brain just couldn't focus on words.

Mom passed in 2016, and I found myself still drawing. I shared my work on the social media channels I have as an writer, and people liked my work. They started commissioning me, too! That gave me the confidence to move forward and sell it here.

As you'll notice, I like drawing digitally. (For budding artists who want to know, I use Procreate, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Fresco.)

And this is where you, the amazing you, comes in. You make me so joyous when I work with you and when I read your comments and when you stop by on my Instagram to say hi. Not only is commerce a two-way street, but so is art. Without this shoppe and without you, I would just be a wannabe artist doodling on the back of a napkin crumpled in my glove box, sketching pretty outfits as I waited in the school pick-up line.

So thank you. For stopping by, for loving art, for being a part of this moment with me sharing my gratitude. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

-The Ess in Susan