Why I do what I do

I've been asked why I'm starting a new company at the age of just turned 70. By the way, all of the photos of me on these pages are less than 7 months old 😊. Thank goodness for a great photographer, Rick Day, and a great makeup artist, Greg Clark. Rick tells me it's all light and shadows, and Greg tells me it's good bones. All I know is I am lucky to know both men as I sit for photo sessions for this new experience for me, G Marie.

As I turned 68, I hit the opportunity to retire, just that, not work at any specific task, simply retire. I thought about it and realized I prefer to create and risk the challenge of a new endeavor rather than not be engaged daily in the effort. I had an art gallery about 20 years ago, Kane Marie Gallery. I loved being involved in art and jewelry, but the gallery closed in the early 2000s as a result of pragmatism.

So, I contemplated what makes me most satisfied with my life efforts and realized I love working with artists and clients. Finding wonderful jewelry creations and art and sharing them with people who find items in the artist's collections worth owning. It took two years to evaluate the practicality of actually opening a storefront in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and an online store, GMarie.com. It was the most demanding and engrossing two years I've spent in a long time.

I had no concept of just how complicated business has become with the internet, construction, and systems to put in place to begin to open a new enterprise. The internet was in it's beginning phases. I remember when Google launched when I had Kane Marie Gallery, so it wasn't important then. Now, nothing is more important than a great website. I hope ours develops to that point.

Trying to build during the shortages and delays due to pandemic matters caused almost a year of delay in finishing the storefront. Then, the operating systems, aagh, security, safety, inventory for storefront and online activity, employee systems, point of sale for storefront and online activity, social media platforms, marketing for storefront and online store, and the list goes on and on. Selecting jewelry artisans and artists, creating the relationships to enable success for both them and G Marie as a team. Long days and nights of working intently, But all in place now. I was incredibly lucky to have Carla Carter rejoin me for this effort. Carla worked with me when I had Kane Marie Gallery. After all those years, she came back, a story for another time.

We're open; come visit and let us know what you think,

Sincerely,
Gale