My name is Beverly Hayden. On August 3, 2008 I will be heading to Southeast Asia and am planning to stay for - you guessed it - 7 months! It’s been a dream of mine for quite some time to live and travel abroad and I’m glad to be on the verge of making it come true. My current plan is to spend 6 weeks each in 4 different countries: Indonesia (Bali), Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. The last month I’ll revisit whichever country is my favorite. If you’ve lived in or visited any of these countries and want to chat about it/offer suggestions, i’m all ears! Please leave a comment on the “Ask a Question/ Make a Comment” page of this site or feel free to email me.

Professionally, I’m an artist/photographer as well as a recovered attorney. You can see my work on the following two websites: web.mac.com/beverly.hayden and www.beverlyhayden.com. During my time in SEA, I plan to lay the groundwork to lead photo tours beginning in 2009 and 2010. I’m sure I will also find great inspiration for new artwork. Other than that, I plan to spend my time in Asia doing some language & culinary studies, absorbing and participating in the culture and spending time with locals as well as other travel enthusiasts.

Other than traveling, art and photography are my main passions. Although I have actively incorporated various forms of art from music to welding into my life since I was a child, I resisted the urge to seriously create art until 2003. Prior to my metamorphosis as an artist, I spent seven years working as an attorney in Nashville, Tennessee practicing commercial bankruptcy & litigation. Despite many years and the equivalent of several small mortgages invested in that profession, I realized that it did not satisfy my inherent need to be creative. In January 2003, I terminated my legal practice and embarked on a tremendous adventure with my dream of uniting photography with my passion for travel.

I spent the first 3 months of my liberty in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, studying Spanish, beautiful light and the art of making margaritas. Upon my return to the United States, I spent the summer in Missoula, Montana at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography (RMSP). There, I participated in an intensive course in photography that compressed into three months what one would study in a two-year degreed photography course. While at RMSP, I discovered a passion for creating fine art photography and have been exhibiting my work at shows all over the United States for the past 5 years.

In 2007, I was inspired to move beyond photography to create mixed media assemblage art which i’ve recently been showing around the country. In 2009, upon my return from Asia, I will again be exhibiting my work at the Main Street Fort Worth Art Festival in Fort Worth, Texas from April 16-19.

I would be delighted to have you join me on my adventure! You can subscribe to this blog on the main page either in a reader or by email if you prefer to receive update notifications.