As a child, my parents were kind but strict with diet, exerise, education and encouraged me to earn and save my own money to be able to buy things I wanted, like tickets to the circus by selling my drawings door to door.  My first full time job was Office Manager for Massachusetts Association for Mental Health after majoring in Social Theory and Political Economics.  One of the programs I helped organize was on Cape Cod with Kate Cronkite and Meryll Maleska Wilbur for "suicide prevention."  I moved to Naples, FL in the 1990's after traveling the world with my own savings that I earned in small jobs working through high school and as an undergrad. I returned to Boston to and met Sec of Administration & Finance Charlie Baker, determined to have MA State Cookie the Toll House Cookie. Impressed with my passion, he put me to work for the Commonwealth of MA. I  also produced my first film to raise awareness to the lack of victims' rights in 1999.  I wrote the manuscript as an undergrad & a team of attorneys helped get our Congressman to write the first bill in the USA making it a crime to stalk and harass someone.  Houghton Mifflin pursued me to publish the book version even after I moved back to Naples to escape media attention because Naples was not yet on many people's radar.  
 
With momentum from the book and film, I established EssentialArt.org and began PrintsOfFreedom.com. My paintings were auctioned to raise money for charities.  During pandemic lockdown, I remembered skills from my first real job and partnered Essential Art with HomeBase.org.  After Hurricane Ian flooded my community, I found Urban Meditation and became a member, going EVERY DAY! They sell EssentialArtSkinCare.com & I promoted them on social media before deciding to learn more skills like AI and webdesign.  I also found my old paints while looking for legal documents.  I realized I hadnt painted since 2018 when my dad died and I learned to Illuminate Letters at a 3 day workshop offered at my church.  I had taken that course trying to get back into life after being by my father's side every day for 2 years while he was in a wheelchair on oxygen.  Grief was hard but life's chaos without him was harder.  When I found the paints and then the gold leaf used to Illuminate the letters in my third published book, "What Does Your Garden Grow," I was inspired to begin painting again.  I believe it is because of the love and lava beds from Urban Meditation that I once again transformed my pain into art.  "Zen Garden Treasures" became my newest portfolio, made with the remnants of the gold leaf to illuminate what grows in Naples Zen Garden.  More than the trees and plants themselves, what makes it special is the promise of unconditional love and peace and the "Fruit of the Spirit" illuminated in the book in memory of my father Joseph M. Finnegan.

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I have a confession: I'm not really a princess.  I am just an American kid doing the best I can in a world seemingly obsessed with fame and fortune and royalty.  As an American, I was raised to believe in working hard, studying hard and applying what was learned to become whatever we want, while respecting others because in civil democracy, we have unalienable rights.  We all need a vacation from our reality at times so I welcome you into my very real zen garden walking distance to the beach.  My title, "Princess of Freedom" came to life years after I created the painting portfolio PrintsOfFreedom.net

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