These are just a few of the words I hear when people describe my work and I LOVE THAT!!
I’ll be honest with you…I really don’t know WHY I paint but I do know I NEED to paint and when I miss a day or two. I feel out of sorts. Painting calms me, grounds me and it makes me HAPPY!!
I've been painting since 'retiring' in 2002, the year I turned 50. I needed a change in career away from sales and knew I had to take some time to figure out what that would be. I had always dabbled in creative mediums over the years and even took the odd class here and there … colour theory, pottery wheel, sculpting clay face masks, hand painting on silk, water colours and pencil sketching ….so I bought some acrylic paint, some cheap canvases and picked up a brush!
I surprised myself! I applied to juried art shows, got accepted and showed my work to the public in many shows over the years!
In 2009 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I dealt with surgeries, radiation and meds for five years and throughout all that time my interest in painting really started to wane! About 2 years ago I was starting to question WHY even paint and was feeling completely unmotivated …. until one day when I was doing some searching (going down the proverbial “rabbit hole of Google art searches”) and came across an online artist's class “The Down Deep – Mining Your Truths On Your Creative Journey”, offered by the amazing, talented Fonda Clark Haight!
I was hooked!! Fonda teaches intuitive painting combined with art journaling … something I had heard about but was always skeptical about …. but there was SOMETHING that really resonated with me about the class! Thankfully, I decided to sign up and go along for the ride to see where it would take me!
It's difficult for me to explain how this class grabbed my attention and fired up a creative inspiration that I hadn't felt in a very long time!! Since then, I’ve immersed myself in to all aspects of journaling … altered book journaling, journaling in bound blank journals and even making my own journals … along with intuitive painting .. letting the page (or canvas) speak to me!! Fonda urged me past my initial resistance to journaling (I couldn't wrap my head around how you'd sell or show journaling) and next thing I knew I was hooked!!
FIRED UP!! Excited about art again and learning new techniques. Learning new things about myself with the help of intuitive art .. “letting the page tell me what I needed to know” as Fonda would teach us. I know this sounds more like a testimonial for Fonda (and it is) … but it was her class that sparked the flame again!
There's a lot of interest and excitement going on now around my journaling and I've been asked to teach an Altered Book Journaling class by the Art Society King (an art group I am a member of)!
Did I mention I am fired up?! I am really excited to see where all this will lead me. Along with interest in journaling, I have a new found interest in transferring my thoughts and art from my journals on to large canvases. I recently painted a large 4' x 4' canvas piece of a stylized image of Georgia O'Keeffe that was included in September 2018 as the featured artist in a monthly art magazine published by Fonda Clark Haight!!
Thanks very much for your interest in my work and taking the time to read my bio … that also MAKES ME VERY HAPPY!!
Take a moment to subscribe to my email mailing list. I promise I won’t overload you with emails but just every once in a while will send one out to share with you where I’m at and what I’ve been working on.