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by Yaeli Vogel

A Decade

A decade As I reflect upon the decade that is now coming to a close, it’s freakin amazing how much a person can actually accomplish. My background is extremely humble and I always wanted more. I never knew how I was going to get it and set out on this dream. I’d watch Shark Tank every single week, religiously. Trying and thinking of business idea after business idea. Each time there was a reason why not. I was relentless about my ideas. I then opened up an arts and crafts business called Glitter and Glue. It was so much fun but I had no way of scaling it, got burnt out and shut it down. I tried making headbands, walking into stores and selling them. That worked but my heart wasn’t in it. (Clearly that was a factor!) I did summer camps for kids. That was ultimate burnout. Crossed it off the list! I thought of idea after idea and I remember laying down on my apartment floor thinking how in the world was I ever going to buy a house?! I had no savings, couldn’t rely on my parents or in laws financially and trying to make each month. All while being a part time teacher. Teaching was great. Kids are my first love and it’s so refreshing hanging out with them. But I disliked the work vs pay. For the amount of work I was putting in, I wasn’t being significantly appreciated. I knew it in the depths of my heart and it bothered me. When I told my boss - the principal, I was leaving, she begged me to reconsider. She told me I had a gift and was talented in teaching. She said “I had it” and if I ever wanted to come back, I could. Honestly, if the teacher salary would have been higher, I would have probably still been doing that right now (and if my artist spirt was dead) But I knew I couldn’t go on teaching. It wasn’t worth my efforts. If I’m in, I’m ALL in. I can’t be half and half. So I stayed home. I was going to be a stay at home mom. (A poor one but at least a happy one;)) Ya, that didn’t last either. I didn’t know to what extent at the time but I’m a doer! Doers need to DO. I had a degree in special ed and applied for a case through an agency. Got the case. That was the next two years. Good. Solid. Can’t complain. Ohhhh but I did! I was SO BORED. Was I just doomed?? Yep. Or That’s what I thought. I then emailed my Rabbi from seminary asking him if this is what life is supposed to feel like - grey and plain...He didn’t respond and I didn’t need him to. I was slowly figuring it out. I had a miscarriage during this time and took out some paints to get me through my thoughts and feelings of the time. I painted one painting every two nights for about three weeks. When the paintings were done, they were GOOD. It was exciting! I then went on to paint my sons shoes, my family at the beach, random scenery, and gifts for anyone I knew. I went outside and painted the water. I started to dabble. I’d go to my case in the mornings, come home and paint. Sometimes I’d stop in Michaels on the way home for supplies. The “greyness” was disappearing! I remember telling a colleague at work that I’d love to start a business ONE DAY...and that if I’d ever leave special ed that’s what I’d do. Ohhh, watch your words! Be careful what you wish for...!! But as it goes one step backwards, 20 steps forwards....September came along. They let me go. There was no cases for me - aka - I was fired. Breathing. Breathing. Not breathing. Why was I going to do? No monthly income. Omg. Nothing to rely on?! HOW? WERE? WE? GOING? TO? MAKE? IT? I called my husband, unable to speak through my tears and he said - tzadik of a human - were going to be fine, this is the best thing that ever happened to you. You’re going to paint. You’ll see. So I took a deep breath, and began painting. ALL IN. I was a starving artist, in the very essence of the word. I never went shopping. Not even for food. I’d buy art supplies before it. I saved all my dollars. I’d make leftovers for supper and then use the leftovers for leftovers. I was on a mission. I didn’t care what anyone thought. I’d make aluminum pans out of silver foil. I wouldn’t drive much so no need for that much gas. That’s how calculated I became. (It was the best for me to learn, since I’m naturally a big spender. I’ll never forget what I learned) I learned that every dollar equals $100. Think before you spend. Don’t use three tissues if you can use one. Things I never thought of before, rose to the surface and became apparent. I wasn’t fanatic by any means, but we were on a tight tight budget = zero. Nada. Lucky for us, our kids were very little and didn’t ask for much then. I never knew how resourceful I was, until I was put to the challenge. (All learned from my mother - watching her while I was growing up) I sewed the hems, cleaned my house, cooked and baked everything myself. And painted. Then came the best part which was free - SOCIAL MEDIA. And I committed to it. I posted each and every day. When you post, you need to have what to post....so I painted each and every day! I gave myself goals. Painting goals, posting goals and followers goals. No one knew me. No daddy with contacts. No mama with contacts. No neighbors with contacts. (Contacts that buy art I mean) I was a complete nobody to anyone outside of my close family and friends. But hey, I had a paintings to sell with a message behind each one, I needed the world to know me! So I virtually knocked on every persons door. I requested to follow them. If they’d see who’s knocking, they just might enjoy the art! I wasn’t embarrassed at all - I was doing them a favor by introducing them to beautiful and moving artwork! I don’t know if it was my mindset or the art, or both, but it worked! People started to jump on board and then word of mouth spread like wild fire. I would sit on my couch every single Sunday for a year and follow people. (Sunday was the day everyone was on) I was painting late passed midnight most nights of the week, building my collection. People were messaging me, asking to view my works and purchase - this was crazy! I would read the messages over and over again, debating if it was real. Omg!!! I had a business growing from under neath me! I hired an agent. He wanted me to sign a contract. I didn’t like the contract. We parted ways. Continued posting. Then collaborating. Got more followers on board. And slowly slowly built myself up. With one sale, I was able to scan a few works. Then put out a print. No one purchased it. So I would put the print option on the site without inventory and print when someone was interested. That worked. Saved and built some more. One giclee turned to two. Some got ruined in shipping. Shipping. That’s a thing. Figure that out. Then websites. Three of them. Build. Build. Build. Paint. Paint. Paint. Schlepping paintings from one private viewing to the next. Those days were hard but good. There’s nothing like building. It’s where all life happens - in the process. So much happened during that time. Ups and downs. Wins and losses. I would celebrate the wins like crazy and learn and try again with the looses. Nothing can come in the way of painting. It’s the air I breath and my world is SO colorful! For years and years I was trying to find the perfect business, and it was staring me dead in the face all along. Many times the thing that we do best, is the thing we should be doing but we can’t imagine it, because we do it so naturally. Why would someone actually pay dollars for this? Because, you are the best. Throughout this entire time, I davened (prayed) and strengthened my emunah with Hashem (G-d). I would close my eyes and envision what I wanted and calmly know that I was in good hands. (And sometimes extremely not calmly.) I’d also attach myself to virtual mentors via YouTube& Google, learning everything I didn’t know. With prayer, histadlus, learning and a lot of hard work, the sky is the limit. (*with the house, since you’re all wondering. We purchased a small tiny starter home back in 2013. We did it with an FHA loan, and put down $11,000. That’s it. With zero savings to back things up. No emergency cash. We would figure it out. Huge risk. It was old and untouched. Slowly, we flipped it ourselves. Ripping up carpets, freshly painting the walls, spray painting kitchen cabinets, tiling the floor, and painting the tub... after four years, we sold the home and moved to our current home.)

by Yaeli Vogel

Cleaning Up

Vibes are real even if we don’t see them. We feel it. We feel when there’s a positive feeling being exuded from someone. There’s a lightness in the air. There can also be a heaviness or uneasy, or negativity going around. We feel that too. What is it? It’s energy vibrations being set out from all of us. What kind of vibes are you putting out into the world? What do you want to world to have more of? How do you want to play your part? By infusing it with your good spirits or the opposite? Use the mask as the opportunity to pause and think. Think of what the world needs more of. Think of what your loved ones need more of, and what you need more of. Good energy. Positive spirits and great vibes! Let’s clean up this world together.

by Yaeli Vogel

From laundry room to gallery!

The first paintings I’ve painted were directly on a computer desk, where I was able to see the image and painted it onto the canvas. I would also paint on the floor, but that got really annoying and it was so hard to get to the right places. I was dabbling, taking it seriously, but not thinking much about it. My husband said it was time for a “real” easel. A professional artist easel. I poo pooed him. Where would I even put the thing? We lived in a small three bedroom house. Yes, there was a basement – which had toys in every crevice considering the little humans around me at the time – (2 & 3 and baby. on the way) He didn’t listen to me – clearly believed in me from day ONE! And my husband and brother got together and chipped in to get me my first easel and put it together! We placed it in a corner, by one of the toy shelves, and it became a piece of furniture there. The kids got so used to it, they hardly noticed it. They may have climbed on it once or twice. I don’t remember so it must not have been too bad! I would place my palette and paints on the top of the shelf and would even leave it there over night. I wanted a more enclosed space and began outgrowing the toy shelf. (Laugh emoji insert ) We had a laundry room that was raw with tools and storage and well, laundry! I didn’t care at all. I cleared up some space, organized the room and moved my easel into it. I had space to think and BE and I was thrilled! Music blasted, dance moves happened and paint splashed onto canvases – it was goooood times! For those of you who’ve had the honor to come into that corner of the world, you know. Then it was time to move from that cozy nest, and into a larger home to fit our growing family and artwork – it began taking over. . We found a place with a garage – specifically looking for one – to use as a studio and house the paintings. We fixed it up – popped the beams to create a higher ceiling, put up dry wall and a nice light fixture. It was a cool place. But it had some major setbacks. We didn’t place ac or heat in the beginning (and it’s good we didn’t. -read on) and so it was freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer. Not ideal. The plan was to put that in asap. But then, the garage would get flooded! Our backyard is low and water fills up quickly after a rain or snow storm. (Everyone in my area has this problem. We live on swamp land.) and so we quickly removed the paintings from the floors and put them onto tables. It didn’t look all that great after, and the look we created got completely destroyed. I was bummed.Then we did the basement. I quickly reserved one room for myself just to paint in. It felt amazing being warm, cozy and in my own space again. #thelittlethings Whenever collectors would come, they couldn’t see all the work at once, since it was all on tables and in piles. Again – NOT ideal. But it was what it was. I had to paint and sell where I was, to save up money to move onward. One day I was talking to my kids dentist and he popped the idea of looking for a space. Any industrial space. I called my realtor right when we walked out. And the rest is history! You can read all about that in the next blog post – stay tuned!

by Yaeli Vogel

How to create the work / life balance?

How do you create the work / life balance? True answer – you don’t. Whoever made up that term had a sense of humor, honestly. The word balance is trippy and can play with our minds. I say just dance! Or juggle with a”I” ;) In all seriousness, I heard Jay Shetty say in one of his videos, that you can juggle the balls, and if one has to fall, let it be the rubber ball, not the glass balls. Family and relationships are glass. Work is rubber. It will always bounce back. I’ve always understood this but when I heard it in this way, it solidified it! The people in our lives deserve us. As vibrant and present as possible. Not “ the answering each email as they come” version. As much as my heart wants to be in so many good things like school functions and distant family reunions, I’m very focused. I think and map out my priorities clearly and when they blur I go over them. They are: Family and painting. Of course other things get sprinkled into that, but those are the main pillars. There are only 24 hours in a day and I need to make sure that these two areas are getting “watered” every day. So, I’m very conscious of my decisions, knowing that what I focus my energy on will have a flip side. I’m home with my kids every day at 3:00. I don’t work past then. I resume working at 8 and work till the wee hours of the night if I need to. (I’m really not a night person, but I became a night owl) I prep their clothing and lunch before I go to bed, so that if I have a late morning, things are running smoothly. There are also things that are automated in my business making it easier for me to focus on what I need to focus on. For example: it was hard on my team to package the large canvases and so we them those out to get packaged. We also have a special label printer which took a load off. My hands are needed for painting so if there’s a way with technology to automate things, I’m in and always looking out for new ways to do so. And then, the best is when your work is so part of your life that it doesn’t feel like work or a juggle. I love what I do, and my family knows that and feel connected to it as well. My husband wants me to paint. He loves it too. And so, if it’s a Sunday afternoon and I juts have to get the idea out and run to do so, he gets it and pitches in. The kids love seeing the works and guessing what it is, telling me their thoughts and opinions. Sometimes a child will come into the room when I’m painting and I’ll set him up with some brushes and a canvas near me. It’s very much apart of their lives. It’s great for them to see work ethic and passion and to know that work is apart of life and it can be really really great. With all that being said – you heard my point of view. Now, ask them!

by Yaeli Vogel

New Gallery

Will you be painting at your new gallery? I’ve wondered why people keep asking me this question and then I thought about a different artist – would I care about where they were painting – for sure! So now I totally get and want to shed some light.I’ve always wanted a place where I’ve can see all of the paintings at once and have this grandiose effect. So when I looked for a space, I really wanted somewhere with WALLS to hang up artwork. I didn’t even think about working there as well. Then we found this space and it was really too goo to be true. It was exactly what I’d envisioned. Extra tall ceilings with WALLS. A M A Z I N G. So we took it. Then I began browsing and Pinterest to see how we could fix it up. Oh I didn’t mention- it was a storage place before and was very undone. Like completely raw. I gathered different art galleries that I’ve been to and picked and chose the elements I loved from them. I wanted something warm and fresh. I saw the work Island many times on Pinterest in fancy art studios and alike and knew that would be included. It just us to be. The place came out fabulous and the work Island was even more so! So even though, yes, the space primarily focuses on show casting the works, I also paint a lot by the Island – right now, actually working on a watercolor series while Sarah, my assistant, works on the computer. It’s a lot of fun Slowly, acrylic paints are making their way in, and eventually there will be an easel there too. I’m not moving my easel from my painting room in my basement since there is no way that I’m running out at 10:30 at night to the gallery to paint. There is nothing like painting in your pjs at home. Nothing.

by Ben Schorr

The Ivanka Painting

It all started with a simple photo. It was one that I had seen on Instagram while scrolling mindlessly one night. It just stopped me in my tracks! It was a photo of Ivanka Trump praying at the kosel. It was so vivid, the wall full of emotion with a woman praying deeply. It was oozing out of my screen. It took me directly to my saved photos where I inserted it for a later point. I knew I was painting it. The colors were being mixed sooner than I had expected. I moved a few other “to paint” paintings around and got working on Ivanka right away. When the inspiration hits, it hits! It was no easy feat, This image. Since the kotel is all one color, I had to focus on the bumps and texture and created that effect by painting layer after layer after layer. It took a long time and I remember thinking, what are you even doing Yaeli? Why are you putting in all this time? What’s your point? Then I thought, like I always do, if it’s for nothing, then I got great practice and that is worth every minute of my time! I was adding yet another layer, the brush swinging from one side to the next with added strokes, when I stood back and saw it. I saw the feeling. The one I saw in the beginning. Breathing a deep breath of accomplishment and satisfaction, I knew it was complete. People ood and aad at its sight, and as they did, I couldn’t help but wonder how long this painting would be stored with me. That thought annoyed me, so I just stuck the painting in between another few canvases where I could forget about it for the time being. People came to view paintings. We would go through them piles of canvases and Ivanka was always there. It was hard to forget about it. My mother’s husband, who is a huge supporter of my work, especially back in those early days, asked me what was with the painting? I said “nothing”. He then popped the idea of sending it to her directly. He said “ just send it to her!” What have you go to loose?? (Um. my painting. Minor detail.) I decided to do it. I told everyone on social media that I was doing this, this way it was real to me and I couldn’t back out. I managed to get a hold of Ivanka’s new Washington home address and got to work. It was Sunday afternoon. I sat down and put together a few words to send it off with. I wrote why I painted the painting and sent it out from behalf of myself and my entire community . I wrapped it up as well as I could. (Those were the days before custom boxes and headed straight for the post office. This was a large painting – 30” x 40” and I was waiting on line with it. I felt funny. When I got to the desk, I landed the painting with the address facing down - I was too embarrassed for the clerk to see where the parcel was headed! He gave me the tracking and told me it should arrive in about ten days. I knew that tracking number by heart. I checked it daily. It was in transit. Oh my gosh! This was all happening and it was exhilarating! Until…it wasn’t. I tracked it again, to see if it arrived and it said delayed. What did that mean? Where was it? These things can happen so I waited. Three days later, the same message appeared. I called. They said that it was in the post office near Washington and if it wasn’t going to be picked up then it would be shipped back. I was disappointed but relieved that my painting was alive and well. I then set a mental reminder to begin waiting for it to arrive back home ten days from where I was. It didn’t arrive back. I called the post office again and they said it had been removed. WHAT?? Removed to where? I was so nervous. Did someone throw it out? Was was I supposed to do? I figured something would turn up so I just waited. It originally shipped out in November, and by now it was December. I received a phone call from an unknown number and so naturally I didn’t respond. There was a voicemail. So I clicked and listened. I heard: “ Hi, Mr. Yaeli, this is the appraiser for the president of the United States….as I heard those words I back tracked the message to the beginning. WHO?? I listened again. The appraiser for the president of the United States of America!! He was calling regarding the painting and wanted to know it’s retail value. I immediately pressed the call back button and gave him the value. He informed me that there were a lot of gifts being sent their way and the ones they liked and wanted to keep, they purchase. He said we would be in touch. A month later I emailed him asking what was going on. Did Ivanka see the painting? He got back to me saying that he doesn’t quite know, but from what he’s heard, Ivanka really likes the painting. Great! I thought. It’s safe and good. All is well. I kept dreaming about different scenarios of Ivanka loving the painting. It excited me! Then one afternoon in the beginning of January, we received a letter. I actually didn’t see it. My husband saw it and texted a picture to me. It said TRUMP on it. I knew what it was. I just knew. He handed it to me when he got home and I open it up. It was a check for the retail value of the painting signed by Ivanka Trump. THAT was satisfying. There was no letter. Just a check. She liked it. She purchased it. And it’s hanging on her wall! If you want to do something, DO IT. Don’t listen to others opinions or beliefs. The way they view things is on them. If you can think it, and dream it, then how ever it will happen, you can do it. Don’t think of “how” think of “why” – why do you want to do it? The “why” will fuel you, and as it’s said “ nothing stands in front of desire.” YOU CAN DO IT. Anything.