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Since a very young age I liked to explore and create. I was fascinated by patterns especially those in nature. We had a swamp near our home and I would spend hours watching spiders weave their webs and the reflections of color off the water. I noticed leaves were not just green nor were skies just blue. I was always creating mostly craft type things.
In grade 6 we had this project to trace a Poinsettia on a piece of board and then paint it. We were given a very simple outline of a Poinsettia and told to use our pencil and rub graphite all over it and then trace it to the board. Once I had done that I did not like the Poinsettia so I edited it adding my own flare. The teacher angrily stood over me and asked me what I was doing. "You are not doing it right!". Frustrated she said to me, "You did not follow the directions. You will never been an artist." She promptly made me erase my drawing and start again. I finished the project but absolutely hated the results. That was the end of painting for me until my mid twenties.

My first year of nursing I worked a lot of nights. On a very quiet night in the beginning of December we were discussing decorating for Christmas. I got this idea to paint a window with Santa and a Christmas Tree. I did some drawings and in the morning I went and picked up some paint and brushes. It was going to be a weekend of working and just in case it was slow I would give the window painting a try.

My coworker loved the idea of painting the windows. She put up a tree and other decorations. I painted windows. When Santa was done she helped me decide on some designs for some of the other windows. By Monday morning it looked liked Christmas. I had all 14 windows on the front of the third floor painted. Obviously we weren't too busy.

Monday afternoon, I got a phone call from my Head Nurse Sadie. Ah yes I worked in the day of head nurses. She asked it I could come in to see her. Getting called into the head nurses office was a scary thing in those days. Usually you were in trouble. I went in right away.

On the thirty minute drive to her office I near drove myself insane trying to figure out what I had done wrong.

Sadie greeted me with her jovial smile and told me how much she appreciated the window painting. "You are an Arist!" she proclaimed.

I denied it and out of my mouth came, " I can never be an artist, I can't follow directions."

She looked at me and asked who told you that? I said nothing but had visions of the grade 6 Poinsettia.

Sadie took me from room to room and critiqued the windows. "And this poinsettia garland is beautiful. Very creative." Then she shared her own art from an album she had created and invited me to come to a local art school. Off we went and that night I learned how to prepare boards for painting. Over the next few years I spent endless hours at the school learning the oil techniques of the old masters from Atelier Sandor Meszaros. The Painting pictured here is the first assignment Sandor had me complete.

I went on to learn other techniques from others and explored much on my own. I do love to try new things and experiment with mediums. I am not the greatest at drawing but I love to create and encourage others to create.

Like many artists I have many painting in closets and getting old hanging on walls. I do donate art to many different organizations and sometimes I have give away.

Creating a Heart Collage. This was such a fun project! Painting with Paper using mostly various thickness of Mulberry Paper and gluing it all together with Acrylic Medium.