This book gripped me from the start.  It is a novel about following your dreams.  The main character, Dani, draws you in with her reality of moving to Mexico to pursue her dream of being a full time artist.  We meet her eclectic group of friends: Sylvia; Ivan and Chuy.  The funniest character was, Chuy, who was always offering Matcha Green Tea to Dani so that she would feel better.  The author, Cindy A. Carl, has a good sense of humour and it plays out in all of the characters.  There were parts where I would just giggle because Dani did something so realistic I could immediately relate.  It was something I would do like stubbing a toe and stumbling, then looking around quickly to see if anyone had noticed.

Paint, Present & Future becomes really interesting when we start to see the lines of reality blur for Dani.  There are a series of ten paintings that she is working through.  She is in the throes of creative passion and is painting like a maniac.  At this point, I started to question whether she was sane or not.  Even her friends became concerned.  It made me wonder how many artists experience the same overwhelming passion to paint in real life?  The novel was hard to put down as Dani worked through her obstacles of artist block, the breakthrough and passion, and finally the ending and feelings that popped up at that moment.  The novel is woven together well and the ending was thought provoking.  Needless to say, it was an ending that I was not expecting!  It was a fantastic perspective of one artist’s philosophy and life.