In 2015, I started a full-time Spring semester: Film Lighting, Small Business Accounting, Payroll, and Taxation. I was still working part time in La Jolla.

In January, I got 97%+ on IRS advanced tax preparer exam. Till April, I volunteered to file taxes for low-income people every Saturday, driving far inland to small towns of San Diego county.

In May, I finished a film lighting college course in downtown campus with an awesome professor of art directing who worked in the industry his whole life. One guy from our group became a rock-star in LA, another transferred to Berkley, one Girl went to a film school in New York, another moved to Arizona, and one became homeless, as I learned later.

Then, I quit the exhausting international customer service job.

By the end of May, I moved from the North Park in San Diego to Huntington Beach, Orange county, California, Adams street area. The beaches were gigantic, and the traffic was awful. People warned me about conservative Orange County, but at first, it seemed cool and promising.

In nearby Costa Mesa, I studied history of cinema for Summer semester in the well equipped local college. The professor was a cinematographer who worked with big action movie makers.

I started making art on the floor of my living room, with teens skating right in front of my open door. I made a couple illustrations, and had long-term corporate German students, and a few travelers and college kids.

During that Summer, I produced and finished editing tree short documentary films, two of which got minor prizes on film festivals. I was also gathering footage for a feature film.

In September, I started more filmmaking and studio-drawing courses, but I was not getting what I wanted, it did not justify my time investment. Life started to feel shorter.

In 2016, I continued working on water-media paintings during my free time in a tiny quarter-studio in Huntington Beach, Orange County, California. I taught business and beginner German, took some translation work, had a small business, redesigned my investment portfolio, and got married!

In 2017, my last year in Huntington Beach, Orange County, California I went to Europe in Spring, to Brussels for a friend's wedding, and then to Dusseldorf and a few other towns.

I made great friends in Santa Ana and the city of Orange, California, where a fellow artist (in paper collage) organized downtown meetings, but also in other neighboring towns. I participated in many discussions on humanism and linguistics, went to fun parties and outdoor gatherings.

By the end of the year though, I might have came close to a nervous breakdown. I could not relax, I cried at strange times and places. Even running along the Santa Ana River, 10K every morning, stopped giving me the same happiness. I still wonder how I came back to my usual self.

In 2018, I moved from Huntington Beach, Orange County, to Oceanside, San Diego County, California. I founded an orchard, with many unexpected problems - most eventually resolved, and set up a new art studio.

In 2019, I lived in Oceanside, California, and concentrated on life figure and portrait drawing and painting.