The meeting with Jenny West provided insight as to how artistic expression varies. Jenny showed her abstract art and the colorful rugs she made of old t shirts. I’m always curious to see if a real (professional) artist has a side business or not. She clarified that to her, being in the studio 3 times a week and book keeping is like living her best dream. The most valuable advice that I took away from the meeting was that you still need to make money through other means before you get established. There most likely won’t be an immediate demand for your artwork, and you shouldn’t get discouraged. I think we sometimes break off into two extremes of “art makes no money” or “you can totally sustain yourself with art by just selling paintings”.  The middle ground is that ‘yes you can sell paintings, but there are ups and downs so you need to have another form of financial security’. Jenny also shared with us her personal technique of painting with emotions. Yet again, we are reminded of another ‘way of seeing’, and Jenny’s way was through drawing her emotions on a canvas without opening her eyes. Each week, I get surprised at the amount of variety that art includes. I hope that future meetings will be just as interesting and insightful as these first two.