Birthday present

[Chris Saper]

I can attest, firsthand, to the professionalism and import that Cynthia places upon portraiture in general, and specifically, upon her own business, including this Forum. I also know how very stressful it is for her to have to get side-tracked in order to put out fires.

Rob, how very gracious of you to have started this thread (hey! Happy Birthday!) . Despite the difficulties of the past days, in many ways I think the events have resulted in a clearer understanding about the role of this particular Forum, and the setting of good policy to advance that role.

Tom, like you, I have valued my participation here tremendously, both in what I have learned, and in the people I feel that I have come to know as friends, whether or not I have actually met them face-to-face.

Thanks, Cynthia.

[Mike McCarty]

Very well said to all above.

[Michele Rushworth]

I can't thank Cynthia enough for what she has given us all in this Forum. I do my small part as one of the Moderators just to give a little bit back because of what she has given me.

Quite literally, this Forum has been life-transforming and career-creating. Less than four years ago I really had very little clue how to paint (I thoughtI knew how!) and I had very little in terms of professional experience. Now I have a consistent one year backlog of portrait work, have had opportunities to have my work featured in the media, and now have contracts with some very high profile clients, too.

I owe ALL that to this Forum, truly. Thank you, Cynthia. I do hope, after all that you've done for me, that I'll finally get to meet you and thank you in person at the PSA conference this year!

[Linda Nelson]

Some thoughts that relate to this thread -

1.) Thanks Cynthia - I think you made the right move for the site and yourself buy putting SOG on pause. As mentioned above, I was appalled by how short the list was of donating contributors, and ashamed more names were not on it, including mine. I, like probably 90% of the readers here have $ issues, but I think we all need to make the commitment to carve out SOMETHING over the next month to show our support to the value of this site.

2.) As I don't stop by too much,I wasn't aware of the tiff that was happening to cause this "time out" of SOG, but I would like to say that, as I read the announcement by Cynthia, I could predict in my head who the personalities were that created the problem, and sure enough, to my disappointment, I was right. To the "experts" on this site I would like to point out that I would never take a workshop from someone who has developed such tunnel vision as to argue to the point demonstrated here. If I sign up for a workshop, it's to learn what you know, not to become who you are. If you demonstrate here that you can't even find room to appreciate another experts' approach, then that tells me you would probably lack the respect for my right to have an individualized approach either.

3.) On the positive side of this little drama, it 's nice to continue to see, through SOG, just how many people in this world who are deeply impassioned by art as we are. We are all wonderfully and tragically infected... congratulations to us ALL.

[Cynthia Daniel]

Yes, Rob, Happy Birthday. I was so enchanted by all the other things you said, I forgot to wish you one.

Thank you everyone! I appreciate you too!

[Rob Sullivan]

Well, thank you for the birthday wishes. The icing on the cake (pun mildly intended) was seeing the positive additions to this thread. You are all wonderful artists - but I see you are wonderful people. The latter makes the the former count for much more.

Linda Nelson! You need to stop by more often!

[Jean Kelly]

I'm in agreement with all the elegant and eloquent comments made so far, and looking forward to a kinder, gentler forum.

Jean

[Elizabeth Schott]

Ditto!

Happy birthday Rob, I hope it was terrific!