Kickstart my Me-tIme!

Chrissie showing off her Art Extension Programme.

By Chrissie Sullivan

Frustrated artist, disillusioned Primary teacher, home-educator, full-on busy Mum/Mama…
Hmmmm…finding ME-time…PRICELESS!

I have: one lovely man; my two youngest children with me and both at Primary; two older sons popping in every now and then; my daughter (who lives next door and is doing her 4th year of study); her three girls who I have been looking after through PORSE; plus two opportunist dogs and two always-hungry cats…which has for the longest time translated into…not much time for me!


With the two youngest now both at Primary I had to start thinking about how I was going to bring in an income that was time-flexible, capitalised on my talents/abilities and above all – I have decided that I am not going to settle for less than working at something I enjoy/love!

"Mana Island" painting by Chrissie Sullivan

Soooo….?  That being said, I’d love to be a full-time artist and with the help of a lovely friend who offered me a corner of her rumpus room to use as a studio, I am working towards an exhibition of my paintings – exciting! This means that I have to be confident in my talent, and trust that people will actually want to buy my paintings…aaargh!  But it won’t bring in the money until I’m ‘famous-er’, (watch this space), so…

"Ora" (life) painting by Chrissie Sullivan

I have had an idea percolating away in the back of my mind for a while, to combine teaching and art as extension for talented/artistic year 5-8 students, and I had trialled it briefly at a local primary school for two terms in 2009/10.  It was very successful, and even better, fulfilling and enjoyable!  I sat on this idea for a while until attending a ‘Kickstart Workshop’ earlier this year by the lovely ladies of WorksWonders fame, which got my creative juices flowing (translate as: gave me a boot up the backside) and I started to network...

I ‘did’ coffee, um, I mean I had networking meetings, with some lovely, knowledgeable, supportive women and developed an ‘Art Extension Programme’ and resource kit over a two month period and I am currently in the process of getting up the courage to contact local Principals (the scary bit) to present my idea and hopefully book a couple of schools for next term/next year.

I am also thinking about developing my ideas further with the possibility of having my own website, developing teacher/student resources and selling my artwork.  Now, that’s exciting! 
Now I just need to: get over myself, get out of my own way and get on with it!  Talk about feel the fear and do it anyway!!

If you'd like to contact Chrissie click here.