Nice to Meet You
The pastel portrait of a much younger me in a floppy hat was created by Tova Navarra, my beautiful mother.
All my life, art has served as a meditation practice that invites me to play like a child exploring a vast imagination. My paintings and mixed-media collages have been exhibited in various NJ galleries, including the Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury, where I recently won the Miguel Figueras Memorial Award for Fanciful Painting for my painting "The Itch of a Life Beyond," and an achievement award for "Valentine's Day," a mixed-media collage.
I live with my sea glass expert author/photographer/musician husband, Guy Cash Fleming, our two adult children, and our Chihuahua named Panda, who thinks she’s a Pitbull.
I am a New Jersey-based writer/artist/musician who spent a decade as a staff writer at a daily newspaper, and the next 17 years as a freelance writer, part-time massage therapist, yoga musician, and belly dance instructor, while smothering my two now young adult children.
In 2016, I published the auto-fiction book, Divine Stupidity (Faith St. Augustine) and co-authored Chilangos in the House: The True Story of a Mexican (Amazon 2015).
Because I never feel like I have quite enough work to do, I became a mental health guest blogger (with hella SEO skills) that lasted two years, for a luxury rehab program in Tennessee. Then I became the editor of two local magazines, and took on an assortment of marketing clients.
To satisfy my sweet tooth for music, I wrote, recorded and produced a CD of yoga music called Yoji Ananda & the Inquisitive Cobra, and have played guitar and electronic drone machine live for many yoga classes as a Sanskrit mantra artist. You can hear it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1PHeSDsMEqcrcY1SBBlvXN
In 2018, when I was completely oblivious about the possibility of a pandemic, I became the Manager of Marketing Communications at Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth, NJ, and now am Director of Marketing & Public Relations and co-publisher of EDGE Magazine.