To support herself in those early days she worked as a waitress for five years and then began a part time career as massage therapist and a cranial sacral therapist . For twenty five years her massage practice  allowed her to make her own hours and gave her a great deal of flexibility and time. 

She saw clients in the mornings and evenings and  was able to paint in the afternoons.   She was fully committed to her studio practice and  created a large body of work.  She also had a few  group gallery shows and sold some paintings from time to time but it was never enough to live on.

In 1990 Amadea moved to Los Angeles where she eventually bought a home and built a beautiful studio in her backyard.  Her life went on for many years in much the same way until she was about to turn 50 and had a realization when she was doing her annual taxes that catapulted her into making  a decision that  DRAMATICALLY changed her life. This decision  allowed her to go from having a part time career as a massage therapist to having a thriving career as a FULL TIME ARTIST.   She was able to fulfill on a dream that she had had since she was a 22 year old art student living in NYC on the lower east side. 

So what happened when she was 50 that finally propelled her forward into making this shift, she realized that:

 1. she had been settling for comfortable and easy and that she was capable of playing a MUCH bigger game

 2. she had been living with a gnawing feeling of dissatisfaction for many months

 3. she was ready to OWN her greatest gifts and share them on a much bigger scale;  keeping them hidden was no longer an option

 4. She  had a stockpile of strong paintings that she wanted to get OUT into the world where they belonged but didn’t know how.

 5. She had the capability of making 3 or 4 times the income that she had been making previously  (her income had hardly changed in 25 years)

 6. although she enjoyed the massage and was very good at it, her energy was divided and she was spreading herself too thin.

 It became clear she needed a pattern interrupt. So she decided to end her 25 YEAR massage practice so she could focus 100 % on her art career.  

She hired a coach and began to examine her limiting beliefs about what she could and could not have in her life. She got very clear about her desires,  examined her relationship to money, and challenged her beliefs about scarcity and abundance. She learned that it was ok to make more money than either of her parents.  She worked on issues of self-esteem and on  building her confidence and  busted through the upper limit of what she felt she deserved and what she could create for herself. She spent months working on the inner game (reading many great books) as well as the business side of her art career:  website, artist statement, portfolio etc.  And she painted and painted.

THIS was a HUGE change and shift. She recalls this as being one of the scariest things she has ever done, requiring every ounce of courage and tenacity and faith she had. She was used to having a daily interaction with her massage clients and a feeling of instant gratification from the work she did with them. She was also used to getting paid instantly for her services.  So when she  gave that up she felt for many months like she was in free fall with no net underneath her.

After about 9 months (she was in her own birthing process)  she was introduced to a wonderful collector who ended up buying 6 of her paintings over the course of the next year and funded more than a year of her life enabling her to keep painting exclusively and she has never looked back. She truly felt like this was a gift from the universe for taking a STAND for herself and a reward for having the courage to move into the complete unknown  without having any idea how the story was going to play out.  

That was the beginning of a journey that has been unfolding in often miraculous ways. In the past ten years she has had many six figure years and has wonderful collectors across the globe. She has a freedom based life style that includes painting, dance , surfing and travel.  She takes one month a year and goes on a great adventure usually in France, Spain, or Italy.

To be clear:  this is NOT an easy path.  It requires crazy dedication, perseverance, focus and the ability to be okay being in the unknown. 

Amadea  often says that if you have a creative career  in any of the arts,  one of your biggest jobs is to become comfortable with discomfort. There are great years and there are years that are hard. There are challenging months and exhilarating months. But as she says “I move forward every day knowing that I am on my true path and that there is nothing else I would rather be doing”.

AND now she is coaching and helping others do what she has done but in a fraction of the time! Click the link below to find out more about her coaching programs.