We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Isabel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Isabel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

I was selling my art on the side of the streets as a single mother along side the homeless people and drug dealers….And I would sell enough of my original paintings, for so cheap but would make enough to pay my rent. I would get spit on and yelled at to get a real job by people, but more so there were people who were connecting with my art more than I ever knew. People would look at the paintings and begin to cry. People were having profound experiences witnessing my art. One day I remember I sold an original for 5oo dollars and she was my Goddess Of Abundance painting. That was sooooo much money to me at the time and I felt the most immense gratitude , I could feel my heart emanating the hugest thank you out into the universe….. I knew it would only get better from then on out. And it did. Now I sell my pantings for much more , and I feel abundant and financially free.

Isabel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a visionary artist and now also an author. I have been painting and creating visionary art for the past two decades…or longer….pretty much my whole life. Creating art has been my way to alchemize pain and connect to my deepest creative wisdom, that oneness that we are all apart of. To connect with what I call God or great spirit or Cosmic Mother, Divine Oneness. That is what I paint…I paint beauty and magic to remind my self and others that we can live fully alive in , aware of out interconnection to all that is, in a reality where everything is medicine, and anything can exist if it is birthed from love.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Its hard to choose but , when I became a mother of two and realized that if I did not get out of the relationship I was in, I would literally die, I packed up, left with a back pack and a baby and a little girl. I didn’t know how I would be able to survive with two kids, one being a tiny baby that kept me awake all night. All I had was my kids and my art. I found a cabin to rent and had first and last months rent, and that’s about it. between caring for the kids, cooking, and cleaning. I painted day and night with my little baby in pack tied to me so I could breast feed and have him close as I worked. I also was doing hand poke tattoo ceremonies . I was going through a lot of grief and stress, I lost a lot of weight, but I kept going. I think I fell to my knees at least once a day crying because it was so hard. When my baby got big enough to crawl and walk it was so incredibly hard to care fro him without any help as I worked and my daughter who was just a little kid also needed care and attention, rides, ect …My body was depleted and my nervous system was trashed , but I kept creating art and somehow people would appear seemingly out of nowhere to buy my work, schedule tattoo ceremonies, and contract me to do commision paintings, or album covers ect. It was magical. I was just staying strong, and never gave up on creating. I healed as I painted, and others were also expressing having healing experiences through connecting with my art. I ended up saving enough peony to put a down payment on a house on the north shore of kauai, which my kids and I moved into about 2 years after first leaving with just a back pack, unsure how I would pay my rent…. I think my resilience has truly gotten me to where I am now.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I think one thing I continuously am shown over and over, is the importance of having an open mind. I think if we all had more open minds we could live in a more peaceful beautiful way on this earth

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.isabelmariposagalactica.com
• Instagram: @Isabel_mariposa_galactica.com

Image Credits

my original paintings