Artist Virginia Erdie enjoying life as a full-time artist

The walls of Virginia Erdie's Pembroke Pines studio are filled with her abstract and surreal texturized paintings, and the floor space with her fine art furniture, a new venture. Even as the molding paste dries on her mirrored works for Studio 18's "Ribbons of Time," Erdie is reviewing sketches for future sculptures.

Virginia Erdie sits in her Magic Chair at Studio 18 in Pembroke Pines.

It's been non-stop for Erdie, 53, since going full time as an artist a little more than a year ago.
After seeing several relatives, including her father, die in their early 50s, she decided not to wait any longer to completely devote herself to her art.
 
"How pathetic is it when people do something they don't really like all of their lives waiting for retirement when they'll have time to do what they want, and then they die?" she asks. "The irony of it just kills my soul."

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