I met a woman who turned out to be very supportive in my career. It's always important to have those collectors you connect with and can talk about anything with. I was selling canvases on main beach cobble stones. And this woman with a lot of art jewelry from the Sawdust Festival, wearing a blue dress said hi, I'm Sue. Sue around 72 years old when she passed in 2017 would come to all my shows after that, she saw the galleries grow. We had amazing conversations through the years she was on the earth. She was very supportive and would purchase a painting every time we saw each other. I first met Sue in 2009 in Gallery 104 in San Clemente, which in hindsight was odd finding out that she lived in Laguna Beach soon after we met. I shot this photo with her Nikon camera and used my apple laptop photoshop.

After her death the entire art collection was sold by the family at an estate sale. A friend called me while I was in New York and asked if I wanted to buy back any of the originals as the prices were very very low, the family never reached out to me to discuss the values of my works or even the number to my art appraiser Gloria Gales that has been following my work since 2004. I asked her to send pics and I choose the original figurative one of a kind (My first figurative ever) that I created in 2004 in San Clemente, CA and displayed at Gallery 104. I'm sure the rest of the collection went to good homes.

This piece is dedicate to my dear friend, Susan "Laguna Sue" Pons.