As a child, my right brain was definitely training to become an artist. What form of art hadn’t been picked yet, but I was exercising everything. I played the piano, the guitar and the violin. For most of my first eighteen years, I took tap dance, modern jazz dance and ballet lessons. I went to the University of Utah, off and on, for six years. I studied literature, English, philosophy, anthropology, graphic design and architecture. I never graduated. I just couldn’t decide what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I married, had two children and entered the gardening phase of my life. I would build roads out of rocks and landscape them with wonderful, exotic plants and flowers. I truly love painting with plants. I’m still into this form of art!
When my children went to grade school, I signed up for a co-op program. The parents would literally teach everything except math & English (they just helped out with those subjects). I taught music for a few years, and then got into the art curriculum. I was mesmerized in the amazing world of artists and paint. The more I taught, the more I learned. I separated from my husband in 1996. That’s the year I really started painting seriously. My art helped and healed me. The marriage door closed, but that art door opened up.
In 1996, I joined the Utah Watercolor Society and started my life as an “artist” and a volunteer art slave! I served on the UWS Board from 1998 through 2010. My jobs included Education Coordinator, Awards and Show Chairperson, Vice-President, President, Past President Advisor, Delegate to the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies. In May of 2010, I was the Chairperson/Project Director for the WFWS35 Show that was in Utah. I’m presently retired from UWS and volunteering!
I’ve be doing watercolors since 1995. I understand the medium and do some of my best work with water. In 2000, I started working with acrylics & oil paint. Since then, I’ve been branching out and trying lots of different media. My present favorite is collage; using watercolor on rice paper, tearing and cutting my designs and landscapes, then pasting them down. It’s freed my creativity and imagination.
I’ve created some magnetic pins, which I call my "I Love Lizards" collection. They’re lizards, frogs, turtles, butterflies, fish & spiders that I drill, glue & hand paint with love. I can’t seem to paint them fast enough! Who knew?
I’ve been beading and making jewelry for years. I just recently started marketing it. I love bracelets too much!
I work, paint and create everything at my home in Murray, Utah. I’m still exercising my right brain with music, dance, gardening and art. I just haven’t completely decided what I really want to be when I grow up.
