Positive Thinking Magazine

 March/April 2006

Jane La Fazio
by Alina Larson
photo by Tim Tadder

Some people find themselves in the rhythm of the day-to-day. Others discover their strengths only in extreme circumstances, as Jane LaFazio of San Diego did in 1998. "I was afraid of my own creativity," Jane says. Back then, although her heart was drawn to art, she played it safe career-wise. Hard to blame her, considering what she'd been through.

Her husband, Don, suffered a brain aneurysm in 1992, leaving him unable to speak, read or write. Jane was shaken but determined. They would get through this together. She had a good, if not particularly fulfilling, job as a marketing coordinator for an architectural firm, and that became their sole financial support while Don slowly recovered.

Between her job and taking care of her husband, Jane didn't have much time for herself. Friends talked her into taking a drawing class. It was so fun, she signed up for a class in watercolors. Jane found something she could call her own: her art. She loved the way drawing, painting and creating made her feel-stronger, happier, more positive than ever.

Maybe that's why she wasn't sent reeling by the news she got in 1998, five weeks before her first one-woman art show: Her firm was laying her off. Jane decided to look at it not as a setback but as an opportunity. She could finally pursue her art full-time.

That was eight years ago. Jane's watercolors, mixed media works and art quilts are regularly  exhibited in galleries and shows around San Diego, including the annual fundraiser for the Brain Injury Foundation, in which she and Don are involved. Jane still takes classes and now teaches them as well. Art freed her to live a fuller life than she'd ever imagined. She loves seeing it work its magic on other people.

 http://www.positivethinkingmag.com/    Your state of Mind/Love Your Life