Monica is an artist, art therapist, author and teacher. After a few years working in TV production she left the bright lights of New York City and returned home to Chicago to follow new dreams. Along the way there were countless jobs as a temp secretary to pay the bills as she pursued a freelance art career. After fulfilling her biggest dream – becoming a mother – she went on to become an art therapist, author and art teacher. In her role as an art therapist she has worked with pre-school, elementary and high school students.
She is also in the process of pitching her feature film script based on her historical novel, Rose’s Ring: Inheritors of Silence and Secrets, and you can read all about it by pressing Enter above. In May the script won Best Historical Drama at the Cambridge Script Festival!Angels Calling
When Laughing Angels are knocking on your inner door you’ve got to be prepared for some great cosmic jokes…and not a little bit of hard work!
It really all goes back to a lady in Brooklyn. While a graduate design student at Pratt Institute, I was sitting in my window seat one day, observing a woman walking down the street carrying her bags. I began imagining a line of “Bag Lady” cloth bags, incorporating embroidery and all kinds of fanciful stuff. The idea percolated throughout my year in Brooklyn, subsequent years in Manhattan, my move back home to Chicago, marriage, and two babies, until it burst forth into a business plan to design and sell environmentally sound bags! All was in readiness, designs lined up, a business name chosen (earthcare designs) a trademark applied for and granted.
Then…
…came the certified letter (with a lot of lawyers names parading across the top), on Christmas Eve, no less, telling me I could not use my chosen business name. Long story short: as I didn’t have “many thousands of dollars” (trademark attorney’s words) to fight, I ceased and desisted. And collapsed in a heap. However, after the New Year had been rung in and the decorations packed away, a new name began to dance around in my head. It, too, burst forth one day; but instead of solving the bag business dilemma, a whole new direction was at hand.
The name dancing around was “Laughing Angel”, and for a solid year I struggled with who, and what, and why? My antennae were up, but apparently a little rusty. Pretty soon, it seemed there was more than one! Reams of paper piled up in the struggle to give form to this new development.
The first three angels to arrive flew by on rollerblades in wild and joyful abandon! They were a little plain at first, but soon began appearing in colorful clothes and striped stockings. Of course, they always wore their safety helmets. They take themselves lightly – but their jobs seriously – and so should we. We won’t fly (unless we take lessons) but we will reduce stress hormones and increase antibodies to fight disease.
That’s my story in an abbreviated form (nobody wants to hear the 15-year version). The angels continue to develop. They’re chomping at the bit to get their messages of joy, love and peace out there!
THE LAUGHING ANGELS©:
One Tuesday morning many years ago on Grace Street, and after the first three angels seemed to skate by, a group of seven Laughing Angels danced across my kitchen table, almost like a chorus line. I felt like a scribe, just scribbling notes on what they wore and who they were!
