52 Live Fashion Stories. Week 21: Live Portraits at the Chris Guillebeau Book Signing

Last Wednesday, for Week 21 of my 52 Live Fashion Stories, I had the honor to not only meet one of my favorite authors, Chris Guillebeau, but to also paint live watercolor portraits at his book signing event for his new book ‘Side Hustle, From Idea To Income in 27 Days’.

I've been following Chris for a few years now, I've read two of his amazing books, 'The $100 StartUp' and 'Born for This', and I've been listening to his daily podcast 'Side Hustle School' since January 1st, 2017, when it first came out.  In fact, he is my virtual running buddy as I listen to his podcast during my runs ;-)  His ideas and teachings have been influential in my 5-year long side hustle as an illustrator, and then in my transition to doing this full time.  So you can imagine just how excited I was to finally meet him and to paint at his event at General Assembly in Santa Monica!

So great to meet you, Chris! Thanks for having me, I had a blast hearing your presentation, and I can’t wait to read your new book #SideHustleBook Looking forward to even more useful insights!

Chris, aka @193countries, is on a 100-city tour, with LA last week as his second stop on the tour - check out the rest of the cities on his tour here, he's 'almost done' as he says, with about 90 or so cities to go as of now ;-) 

At the Santa Monica book signing, I got to meet other side hustlers and hear their inspiring stories.  And I got to paint portraits of some very lovely people.

Soumya, one of the beautiful ladies I met and whose portrait I painted, said: ‘Words fail me to express how Cristina made me fall in love with myself!  MUAH #Gratitude. If God made me in flesh 'n blood, Cristina expressed me in watercolors in a way that God had to do a second take, “Did I create her?!” The power of her portrait is divinity in itself.’  

Wow, I am so honored and humbled, Soumya! Thank you so much for your kind words, I am blown away!! So happy that I could make a difference and bring this kind of joy to you with my work. It was a pleasure meeting you!  @essence.butterfly

Liza Jane was also happy with her portrait: ‘You are an incredible artist and I enjoyed watching you create light, airy and very evocative portraits. It's truly something I will always treasure and a great way to remember this night.’ Thank you so much, Liza Jane, I'm so happy you love your portrait! It was great to meet you and hope we cross paths again soon! @ladyadventureress

Everyone’s reaction blew my mind and reminded me of the reason I do what I do: to bring joy to people, to shift their perception of themselves, and to remind them that they are each unique and beautiful!

Thank you to everyone who waited for portraits, I am so happy I got to meet you all!  See you guys next time! 

Follow me on Instagram to find out where I'll be painting live next week - it's a surprise, and all I can tell you right now is that it's going to be a much larger scale event than I've done so far, and it has to do with DTLA :-)