Shantha Fountain

"If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves." T.A. Edison

I am Shantha Marie Fountain, and if you know me, then you DEFINITELY know that you have found the "right" me! I was a Project Manager at a college and kept the online course developments running smoothly with my slightly OCD behavior for 9 years before deciding that I needed a new challenge and a change. My new day job is working at an insurance company as their IT/Creative, which breaks down into using the strengths of being a "highly integrated", "equally balanced" thinker. I get to use the logic and problem solving for the IT scenarios, and I get to use the creative/photographic/graphic/web design side of myself to make their marketing and art better. In addition to the day job, I am also a photographer, digital artist, and mixed medium creator of things in the Fort Myers, Florida area.

I like to write (blog), read, watch movies (new and old), go on adventures, veg out with my munchkin (who isn't so munchkin-like anymore), play video games, laugh at poop or other inappropriate phallic jokes and innuendo; I like techy things and geeky things galore. For fun, I like to paint and draw, or dream of my next tattoo. =)

One thing that disturbs me slightly about the internet is the amount of false people there are, especially ones that try to elevate themselves by lying about who they are and what they do. For me, I am an open book, so to speak. I will write about my life and I will share art inspired by my experiences. I will create things that are directly influenced by my likes and dislikes. One of my favorite quotes said it best:

"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should've behaved better." - Anne Lamott

I spent a number of years trying to stay in the introverted and protective shell, which would not let people in to see who I truly was. When I had to deal with liars, stalkers, and bullies, I kept it close to the sleeve, and ignored them. I let them whittle away at my self worth, but these days, I am bold - Fit and Fierce - and I love who I am and what I am...

When your mind is caged behind your need for acceptance from others, you are not free. If you feel like you have to prove something to anyone other than yourself, you are not free. Freedom is being yourself and being accepting of who you are.

"One of the greatest mental freedoms is truly not caring about what anyone else thinks of you." - Unknown

I am a great number of things, but scared about what others may think of me is not one of them....

I create. I am a creator. I have created life without fear and continue to nurture it through courage and selflessness, I have created art with compassion and melancholy, and I have created words of whimsy and that of poison. I am not good and I am not bad. I make successes and I have made mistakes. I am human and I am me.

I do not apologize for who I am, but if you follow me or befriend me, then you know the type of person I am. I will lift the genuine people up, act with kindness, provide what I can for who I can, and not leave anyone out in the cold. However, I just don't have the time or patience for drama.

If you would like to read more about my personal journey, it can be found at: http://jadedpixels-irl-blog.com - I write semi-regularly about life and everything in between.

That said, more about why I am here:

Art has always been a part of my life since I was discovered by one of my most favorite art teachers in middle school. She showed me a way and a light through art I had never experienced until then. I nurtured and fed that passion throughout my young adult life, but just like life, my priorities took me down a few different paths. After a decade of roaming, I made my way back home into an arts community and found photography and design to be new things (great things) I get to explore beyond my fine arts background.

When asked not too long ago, the end of 2013 (If I recall correctly), about what fascinates me about portraits and retouching, I said, "Retouching, to me, is removing the distractions to show the true beauty of the subject",and it is true. I speculate that I use the same tools to draw the viewer's eye to different things as I did in fine arts from my past. I don't believe in changing the subjects appearance to the point of creating a stranger in the pixels, I think that would do a disservice to myself and those that I capture, but to get the world to see all those amazing qualities that I see when I am behind the lens, now that it something to really put pride in.

I also take pride in myself these days. As a youth, I believed in being very competitive and very physical. I rode horses, played soccer, wrestled, played football, climbed trees, and did so much that I never had to worry about anything. After the birth of my mini-me, making myself a priority just wasn't one. I had to become selfless. In doing that, I forgot about w