As a young girl of 6 or 7, I used to scavenge old things from a burnt out garage behind our little farm house. Old parts came into the house as candleholders, coasters and decorative figurines. I lined my window sill with treasures until my mom ordered them to the junkyard (where they probably belonged.)
Then I started creating secret gardens, transplanting wild flowers to the base of a tree and bordering it carefully with rocks I collected. I faithfully watered for one whole summer.
In junior high, thanks to a favorite English teacher, I fell in love with sketching and painting, altered books and journaling. A whole world of books and poetry, coffee and tea, music and art was opened to me.
Since then I have experimented and played with all sorts of mediums- oil pastel, soft pastel, watercolor and ink, collage and sketching. Eventually I taught art in middle school and loved every minute of it.
But it wasn’t until after my three children were born and my days were packed with cooking, cleaning, laundry, wiping tears (and other things), that I returned to my own refuge of creating beautiful things. In all this busyness, I carved out time to paint just for the joy of it. I painted to acknowledge the gift of creativity inside of me, the desire to create beauty, to discover what moved through me when I put my brush to paper or canvas.
And my love for abstract art emerged. It’s what emerged unbidden when I gave myself to the process of painting and let whatever wanted to come out of me appear. The invisible became visible in the form of abstract art. Shapes, colors, marks- layers of paint and charcoal, graphite and crayon. Drips and splatters and surprising mistakes turned beautiful. This is the joy and freedom of art.
I am self-taught, with much learning and exploring still to do. It’s never-ending, right? But this is my journey. It began with collecting junk from the garage but it’s always been in me to chase beauty and bring it into life wherever I can.
I bake, I hike, I garden, I gather, I paint. I love to read- to my children and in quiet moments on my own. I love my family and my life. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Please feel free to reach out with a note or a question. I’d love to share a conversation with you!
