Inspired Monday: it's back!

Hi, folks!  Bet you wondered where this feature had been, eh?  Well, it went away for a while this fall/winter when I got really busy moving and prepping my old house to rent out, BUT...I think Inspired Monday will be back on a sporadic basis.

And this Monday's is a big one, one that's super-inspiring to me...

It's Carol Rosetti, whose work you might have seen posted around Facebook or anywhere that cool, life-improving images can be found.  Her art is inspiring on many, many levels...

Carol's "Women" series takes women from all walks of life, some of whom might be relateable to you, and some of them are women you might see and have certain stereotypes that might come to mind.

Well, Carol takes those stereotypes and smashes them to bits.

These are two of my favorites, and ones I find especially relateable...

She's had the stories on her images translated into several languages, which you can find on her Facebook page, where she posts new work, both from the "Women" series and otherwise. (And if you know a language that she doesn't have translated, and you like the work, why not help her translate?  These should be seen by as many people as possible!)

Now, getting a little personal...there was a time in my life a couple years ago when I was trying to lose weight.  And while I did pick up some new healthy habits, and that's a good thing, the process of weighing myself and constantly comparing made me miserable.  That, coupled with having friends who were also on "weight loss journeys" (I kinda hate that phrase), and would constantly talk about them, and how "bad" or "good" they were being with their food and exercising, and how they hated that they'd gone up to (gasp!) a size 10, while meanwhile I'm sitting over here in my size 14 jeans drinking my beer and being like, "uh...hi."  That was not a recipe for happiness, OR health.

So I intentionally sought out more positive images and blogs, created a body positivity section on my Pinterest (and unfollowed any boards entitled things like "getting fit for my wedding!" or whatnot), and...it could all be a whole other Inspired Monday unto itself.  But Carol's work was one of those sources of positivity and acceptance I found, and it was really helpful to me.

So thank you, Carol!

Anyone else have art (or writing, or blogs, or websites) that makes them feel more positive about themselves, more accepting of differences, more like "okay, everything is fine with me and my world"?  Please share!