To finish the exact quote of the always funny and deeply informative Bill Hicks; "Is there a point to all of this? I think so. The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we … mute those people. "Shut him up! I've got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always mute the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok … But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy weapons, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”

A brief history of our company...

In 2010 when deciding to start Love Peace and Paint, creative visionary Shayna Craig really put energy and thought into the "why" of: 

"why am I getting up in the morning?"

"what do I want to spend my time doing and share with the world?"

"How can I serve this world with the passions I love to do with this said time?"

After thinking deeply about these questions she started to work on producing and staring in a local children's television show called Room of 100 Doors and of course by synergistic chance and universal timing, she magically met the forever amazing NJ children's magician Steve Woyce, who became one of her partners in creating the show. While spending some time together on the project, he told her that her love for children, entertaining, performing, art, creativity, and high energy would be a perfect combination of passions to work in the party and entertainment field that he already had been experiencing some major success with. Trusting him and trusting her instincts, she agreed and began training and building what today is the awesome and epic company Love Peace and Paint.

She started off solo by offering princess magic shows and theater shows that stemmed off of her TV show. Once she saw the happy response and positive feedback, the "party entertainment bug" bit her and she wanted to do as much as she could to offer more of her talents to the entertainment world. So she started diving in deep to learn and study the skills that would help her be able to expand her offerings to this world. It was like a magical domino effect of face paint, then balloon twisting, then entertainment games and music. What she didn't realize was that once she started giving, the receiving became unexpectedly overwhelming and she was working non-stop. Like any dedicated and passionate artist, they don't realize that once they put their true love out into the world, it comes back ten fold, and that means the inevitable focus on the OTHER side of what comes with it - organization and business. (ooooh, to an artists ears that sounds yucky.)

So all week she was answering phones, responding to emails, creating contracts, managing files, blah blah blah, all that fun (oh, you can't read sarcasm through text? too bad.) and she started realizing that she was having to turn down parties and events she so desperately wanted to help out with. She also was spreading herself too thin, trying to learn how to manage while also trying to work on the busy weekends. She was learning as she went along and after a while of burning high energy at both ends, she decided it was no fun anymore to do this alone and that what she had created (the company itself) could not only help her and her clients, but other artists and entertainers that she felt would love to do the same thing with their passion - and that she could collaborate with and have the company be an outlet to helping other dedicated artists who love what they do and want to work on honing their craft in a fun and loving environment. Usually entertainers are very competitive because of the nature of the business but after being in the business herself for a little while, she realized there was way more than enough to go around and that instead of being in competition, she could instead - share. 

So she hired one artist, then another, then another and started expanding quickly, then she needed help managing not only her own schedule but the schedules of the other wonderful artists, so she hired a manager and soon Love Peace and Paint became a well oiled machine of parties, happiness, love, peace, paint, and more than everyone involved could have ever even imagined.

As much details as we can tell you about the history of Love Peace and Paint, what we have to conclude with is:

this is just the beginning of something even greater than ourselves.

Love Peace and Paint plans to spread their love, their peace, their paint and energy even farther and grander than they already have started to. Please keep checking back on our LPP Diaries (our blog) or join our mailing list below for news, changes, additions, and the FUTURE of this lovely home grown company. Everything they do is a work of heART.

Thank you for reading, being involved with, and watching our baby grow before our eyes!