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Bonnie On Oz Matthews
I was always a creative kid. Since I was three, I loved to play with colour, paper, and scissors. My family was really into art and cooking – my dad was the original Martha Stewart! He was a fantastic craftsperson, and an amazing baker. Our house was always full of beautiful baked goods!
I studied graphic design at Vir-ginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. But after eight years of working in graphic design, I was burnt out. I wanted to work with colour and paint brushes rather than a mouse and a screen. I had been painting and drawing for myself all throughout my college and graphic design years, but never in a million years did it occur to me to become a freelance illustrator. Until – bam! One day it hit me like a ton of bricks. I wanted to be a part of a project and not the whole. I just wanted to do one piece of the project: illustration.
So I painted some sample illustrations that looked like editorial pieces and mailed them out to magazines. And voila! I got my first gig with Balloon Life magazine. And then another... and then another! It was working!
I started working for a design organization in Baltimore and freelancing at night. I was honest and told them I wanted to do illustration on the side, that my dream was to do kids’ books eventually. And after eight months of working a crazy day job, my dream came true – I got a kids’ book! I haven’t been back to graphic design since. I’ve been told by art directors that my style is very consistent. And that’s a good thing if you’re doing a children’s book – you need to be able to draw the same character the same on every page.
I had created a career out of my hobby, and was making money doing something I loved. But I was working so much that I was becoming more and more sedentary. I had continued to gain more weight into my 40s and my health was taking a toll. I needed to do something about it!
With the economy going south a bit, I decided to supplement my income by taking a part-time job at Trader Joe’s, a unique grocery store here in the US. My job was to create yummy and easy recipes and share them with the public – it was perfect! I’m a people person, so working from a home studio can be isolating. At Trader Joe’s I could be among people for part of the week, and then go home and work on my illustration.
It was at Trader Joe’s that I started eating better. I had sort of lost who I was while I was working so hard on my art career – I was living outside myself in this beautiful world of colour and fun, but forgot to be “present” in my body. It was time to align my inner self and my outer self, and create balance.
I embraced myself! I started walking on the treadmill. In a short while, I dropped 30 lbs. I then started eating better, and added in weight training and interval training with the help of a personal trainer named Kenny Reed. He taught me how to burn fat by building muscle. I worked really hard at all this for a year and a half, and never waivered: I wanted to be healthy, feel good in my body, and feel balanced. Now I am 46 years old and have burnt off 130 lbs! I haven’t had any surgery, nor taken anything illegal. I did it through hard work, focus, and strength – just like I built my illustration career!
I’m very stubborn. People always told me, “oh, you’ll never be a freelance illustrator, you didn’t study that in school.” Well, I proved them wrong. And once I set my mind to it, I proved them wrong about losing weight too. I often joked that if I could only get on The Oprah Show, I could show others in their 40s that they too can do what I did, turn their health around even when they are in menopause. So darn it, one day I emailed Oprah through the show website. And low and behold, four days later, The Dr. Oz Show – owned by Oprah – called me! My dream had come true!
My segment on The Dr. Oz Show aired on January 4, and I told my success story about changing my health – from 265 lbs down to 143 lbs! Plus, my blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol are all in normal range now. It was an exciting moment to walk out onto that stage; I was so proud of my achievements. To me it was more precious than any magazine cover or book assignment I had ever done. Now Dr. Oz has made me a “Wellness Warrior,” and people can find me under the Experts tab on www.doctoroz.com. I will be posting a new blog every Friday with ideas on how to stay focused, recipes of mine, and other things. Will I be on the show again? Absolutely!
I hope that in the next ten years, I can have a split career. Food- and fitness-wise, I’d like to continue working with The Dr. Oz Show and inspire other people in their 40s to embrace wellness when they didn’t think it was possible. I’m also working on a book of my wellness journey and my recipes – my working title is “You Gotta Want It More than Pizza.” I’d also love to give fun, interactive lectures to kids about health and wellness.
Art-wise, I’d like to create stories and drawings for my own picture books. So far I’ve only drawn other people’s stories. I want to have my own voice, with words and pictures of my own together. I’d also like to do murals and paintings of my creatures and whimsical trees and sell them as fine art rather than commercial works. Beyond that, I don’t know – but there is no stopping me now! I feel great – on top of the world! And who knows what’s next!