I’ve known Emie Otis, (shown above) owner of Beauty Mark Designs, for several years now and have been following her work with a watchful eye.

Emie who is a gifted and savvy designer is known for her range of talents including photo-styling, hair, make-up and fashion design.

Her recent creation Madame Bottle Fly (shown below) was modeled by the designer at Portland’s Junk to Funk Show where ‘trash is transformed into wearable works of art.’

Madame Bottle Fly was made with over 600 bottle caps attached to a delicate wire frame (made out of over 30 wire hangers) weighing in at 45 pounds, and demanding over nearly 450 hours of work.

I was curious about Emie’s dream, the obstacles she’s faced, and the evolution of her work. Here’s more from Emie:

CJ: What is your dream?

Emie: I want to be independently and artistically successful. That means continuing to have the freedom to create my art, and in return to receive financial support to pay my bills and live sustainably. I call myself a Beauty Dominator and am currently living my dream of photo-styling, designing clothing and working as a hair stylist. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

CJ: When did you first realize that art was your dream?

Emie: Well, I remember being 8 years old and my sister (who is a bit older) knew she was going to be doctor and I knew (without a doubt) that I was going to be an artist. We were joint-custody kids and I remember one day (in particular) when my dad took me for walk in the neighborhood. He lovingly told me that my sister (as a doctor) might have an easier time being respected by society and that I might find more challenges on my path as an artist, but he respected me for being an artist.

Every time I think about that time, it makes me cry. I remember thinking that someone understood what I felt, and it was very comforting. There were times when I felt second-fiddle but never with my dad. There was this sense (as I grew older) that what I felt on the inside was that I was just barely making it on the outside. My dad’s support was everything. For example, at one of my gallery showings, he bought more than half of my work.

I always knew I wanted to communicate myself artistically. For example, in middle school, I’d cut things up and staple and hot glitter them to shoes. I later took classes. There eventually was a  snowball-effect and all the work started to pay off. I often stayed up working until 3am, creating my own clothing line, entering in competitions and doing photo-styling projects.

CJ: What have been your biggest obstacles and how have you worked through them?

Emie: My biggest fear has been rejection. I’ve overcome it by NOT giving up. For example I’d hear things like, “Your finishing work sucks, you’re not professional enough, etc.” I would beat myself up for a week, let that process, and try again. It’s been a process of many life lessons, and mistakes are important. Perseverance is also important. As an artist without a degree in Art I’ve often considered myself an outsider. Yet the voice inside my head tells me things like, “Keep going Emie and don’t give up.”

I do my part and let the Universe decide. For example, if I don’t get chosen for a competition, I believe that wasn’t supposed to get in, and that’s probably giving me an opportunity for something better.

CJ: What advice would you give to others following the creative path?

Emie: Be as organized as possible. That has been a big challenge for me. Organization really helps because you are the only person taking care of yourself. A lot of being an entrepreneur is not creative, but is also very important. If you want to be financial successful, you have to have a business mind. Do a budget and assess everything.

CJ: What’s been your biggest victory?

Emie: I had a really good 2008. At this time in my life I feel very comfortable in my skin and am proud of my accomplishments. I won 4th place in Junk to Funk, I participated in Explode La Mode where 15 local fashion designer were highlighted. I showed 18 of my garments and The Oregonian featured 6 of my pieces. I also became Trillian Recycled Artisan, I set up an Etsy account, and photo-styling projects which all were very encouraging.

Although is has felt overwhelming at times, being accepted, acknowledged and maintaining that level has been exciting and scary.  I am optimistic.

For more info on Emie, visit her website, Beauty Mark Designs, www.beautymarkdesigns.net.

(I am re-posting a story that’s been warming the hearts of many humans around the globe.) I hope it moves you as much as it did me. –Cheryl

Freedom and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn’t open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in 4 places. She’s my baby. When Freedom came in she could not stand and both wings were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vets office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.

This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn’t stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn’t stand in a week. You know you don’t want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon I didn’t want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn’t bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.

We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to Jesse’s, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington . We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV . Miracle Pets even did a show about us.

In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough,  I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again. Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone.

So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn’t said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don’t know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.

On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power course through his body. I have so many stories like that.

I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom’s.

Economic crisis, plummeting markets, increasing un- employment, recession, depression, gloom and doom – it’s hard not to fixate on the news during times like these, right?

Nope, I’m not going there anymore.

Sure, for a week or so I was glued to CNN trying to make heads or tails of what was happening, wondering how this was going to affect my business, my husband’s job security, and my mom and dad as they prepare for retirement later this year.

But after about a week I noticed that I’d crossed some sort of tipping point.  A tipping point that positioned the news, at its best, as a source of useful information and, at its worst, as a feeding ground for that part of myself, which I call the “negative ego”, that thrives on negativity, chaos and fear.

But as they say, “where attention goes, energy flows.” Is this really where I want to place my attention… on gloom and doom?

Hell to the no!  So I decided to unplug and redirect my focus.

Quickly I began to reconnect with my virtual community of coaching colleagues and mentors.  They helped me remember what I’d temporarily forgotten - that this “chaos” is just evidence that we are on the precipice of a huge shift.

We are being forced to confront what we collectively created over the last few years, decades, and centuries, and with that, we have an opportunity to grow and transform.  We have an opportunity to awaken and evolve.

But to do that, we need to observe and learn while simultaneously redirecting our attention to what is possible and what we want to create moving forward.  It won’t happen if we hyper-focus on messages of fear and powerlessness.

Remember, where attention goes, energy flows.

So I ask you, where will you put your attention today - on the current circumstances or what is possible for the future?

Let today’s attention plant the seeds for positive change in your life and the world around you!

I was reading YES! magazine last night and landed on an article about John Francis, who after witnessing a massive oil spill in San Francisco in 1971, decided not to speak and walk the earth for 17 years. I was moved beyond words. Listen to John’s story. He’s brilliant. He’s a maverick and most importantly, he’s an earth healer. His voice is calming and his vision clear. He wrote a book about his journey called Planetwalker and started Planetwalk, “a non-profit educational organization dedicated to raising environmental consciousness and promoting earth stewardship.” A movie is now being made about his life…to be released in 2009. I wonder who’ll play John…Any thoughts? I think Morgan Freeman would make a wonderful older John.

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I just read a story that Paulo Coelho wrote in the April issue of Ode Magazine which really spoke to me. Thank-you Paulo for sharing your gift…

Disappointing The Devil: On Facing the Terrors of Life with Joy in your Heart. By Paulo Coelho

The man is admiring the sunset on a beautiful beach besides his wife, enjoying a well-deserved holiday. Everything seems absolutely in place, when all of a sudden from the bottom of his heart comes a nice, friendly voice that asks him a difficult question:

“Are you happy?”

“Yes, I am,” he answers.

“Then look around you carefully.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m the devil. And you can’t be happy, because you know that sooner or later, tragedy can appear and upset your world. Look carefully around you, and you’ll understand that virtue is nothing but one of the many faces of terror.” And then the devil began to show everything that was happening on the beach:

The excellent family man who at that very moment was packing and helping the children get dressed would like to have an affair with his secretary, but was terrified at how his wife would react. The wife who’d like to have a job and her independence, but was terrified at how her husband would react. The children who behaved well, terrified by the idea of punishment. The girl reading a book, alone under beach umbrella, pretending to be casual, while her soul was terrified at the possibility that she’d never find the love of her life. The young man with the racquet exercising his body, terrified at having to live up to his parents’ expectations. The old man who didn’t smoke or drink, saying he felt much better that way, when the truth was that the terror of death whispered like the wind in his ears. The couple running past, their feet splashing the water where the waves broke on the beach, all smiles, and hidden terror saying they would grow old, uninteresting, invalid. The rich man who stopped his speedboat in everyone’s view, waving and smiling and sunburned, and filled with terror because he could lose all his money at any moment. The owner of the hotel who came out to greet his guest when the sun was setting trying to make them all happy and full of cheer, all the while demanding miracles of his accountants with terror in his soul because he knew that no matter how honest he was, the men in the government would always discover all the flaws they wanted to find in his accounts.

Terror filled each one of those people on that lovely beach during a sunset that would take your breath away. The terror of remaining alone, the terror the dark that filled their imaginations with devils, the terror of doing something not included in the manual of good behavior, the terror of God’s judgment, the terror of justice that punished any fault, the terror of the injustice that left the guilty free and threatening. The terror of risking and losing, the terror of winning and having to live with the envy of others, the terror of loving and being rejected, the terror of asking for a raise, of accetping an important invitation, of going to unknown places, of not managing to speak a foreign language, of not having the ability to impress others. The terror of growing old, of dying in a terrible way, of being noticed on account of your defects, of not being noticed becasue of tyour qualities, of not being noticed either for your defect or your qualities.

“I hope this has made you calmer,” concluded the devil. “After all, you’re not alone in your fears.” And he prepared to take his leave. “Please don’t go away until you hear what I have to say,” answered the man. “We have the capacity to detect pain, remorse, wounds–or terror, as you prefer to call it. But my father once told me the story of an apple tree so laden with apples that its branches wouldn’t sing in the wind. Someone passing by asked why it didn’t try to call attention like all the other trees did. ‘My fruits are my best advertisement,’ answered the apple tree. “Of course, I’m no different from anyone else, and my heart is filled with many fears. But despite everything, the fruits of my life speak for me, and if someday a tragedy should happen, I know I haven’t spent my life without taking risks.”

And the devil, disappointed, left him to try to scare other—weaker—people.