Month: January 2021

Update!

“Mountains, Moving.” 2021.

I’ll get right to it: From now on, I’ll be giving my full-time side hustle (painting, writing, etc.) a bit more of a main seat at the table. Because, well, if I didn’t, I think when I meet my Maker, He’d say something along the lines of, “I love you… but you failed at being Ally.” 

Hahaha SO, glory to God, I now officially sell works/fulfill commissions for profit as a sole proprietor, with 10% still benefiting Honduran families and Finca del Niño. This is a significantly more sustainable model that allows me to allot more time to my creative work! And more time for creative work means that each and every day is more fulfilling than ever. A little more of my artist story can be found here.

The website, as you may notice, has a new domain and some new features (a gallery of prominent paintings, a shop with many new products, a collection of prominent published writing, commission information, etc.!), but the blog remains unchanged. All posts can be found under the “Archives” tab under “Blog” on the left side menu.

Thank you so much who have been walking this journey with me!

Love,

Ally

2020 word of the year: excavate

“Pittsburgh Sunset.” 16X20” acrylic on canvas. 2020.

December 30, 2020

Left to my own devices, I’m on a bus, plane, train, boat, or road trip of sorts every couple of weeks. 

I remember planning my 2020. Lol. I took the job at Panera last January not to eventually fund my artistic dreams (which is happening now, surreally enough) but to fund traveling… everywhere. Anywhere. Seeing everyone.

And now my big NYE plans are driving 20 minutes to play Bananagrams with the family and I’m so here for it. While I know the traveler within remains very much alive and well and will be rip-roaring ready to go when her day arrives… I gotta let something be said for being still. Experiencing every season again. Seeing Pittsburgh from some new angles, family and hometown friends and myself in freeing, more mature light. Giving my eyes time to adjust to all the rich complexities and hope waiting to be seen right here.

Excavating instead of traveling, if you will. 

There is loss and ache in my backpack, surely, but that can’t stop me from noticing, and deeply loving, this remarkable view right here. And I have 2020–not my own devices–to thank for that.

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”  Proverbs 19:21