*Comments are much appreciated!     Some random facts about me: >>> I grew up in a remote town surrounded by miles of forest and almost no neighbors. I was homeschooled from 4th grade until college. I didn't have any real friends for most of that time. My mother was very abusive and neglectful. I became the Cinderella of the house who did all the cooking, cleaning, animal care... Writing, drawing/painting and making tiny clay figurines became my favorite hobbies, but I had to hide when I did them because my mother thought it was a waste of time and no one would ever pay me for my artwork. I started playing violin in 3rd grade and I liked it originally, but my mother quickly made it into a career for me and I had to practice 4 hrs/day - even on my birthday while my friends played outside without me and on every other major holiday. I felt burn-out and basically had a mid-life crisis around 15 yrs old and gave up playing the violin despite the consequences. I've battled an unknown illness my entire life and wasn't able to get actual medical help until I was 19 yrs old. Turned out, I had 4th stage endometriosis & scoliosis, which SHOULD have been obvious. Because of how much I practiced violin standing upright, my spine is twisted, my head is tilted and one leg is a bit shorter than the other since I put more weight on it. My mother kicked me out of the house when I was in college for saying I thought it was a good idea to live with someone for at least 1 year before considering marriage. I've been almost kidnapped 3 (possibly 4) times before I was even 18 yrs old. The last time, my mother and stepfather had the COULD'VE help me, but they did absolutely nothing. I'm alive today only because of a nice stranger.
Nowadays, still make tiny clay figurines the size of a dime & larger and I paint shadowbox shelves in addition to occasionally writing. Check out my Instagram page for more: @natalia.snyder.art