A little about me...I think that everyone's life, consciously or not, becomes a search for a theme, a focal point. I have hoped to find a sense of balance to calm internal muddles, and on that quest I have always found solace and renewal whenever I connected with the natural world. As the years passed, it became increasingly important for me to explore ways to express that connection...to reflect my sense of wonder and delight with the beauty, the power, the rhythms, and the ironies of nature. Through various forms of artistic expression, I have discovered much joy in my striving for tranquility, and in my attempts to touch the intangible.
An early photograph from grade school would indicate that I started with a brush in my hand! But I would travel many creative paths for over 50 years before once again I turned to painting. On a whim in 1999, I took a watercolor class. More than two decades later, I'm still painting! Another happenstance, a chance encounter with the art of stringing beads during my post-graduate year in San Francisco (in that turbulent and life-changing era known as "The Sixties") introduced me to a different creative outlet. It lay as a dormant inspiration in the back of my mind for many years; then, when that sleeping seed of a notion partnered with other seemingly random events, I "suddenly" in 2012 discovered that I wanted to make jewelry. I find a lot of meditative pleasure in weaving together elemental bits of glass and stone and shell and string, and enjoy yet another way to express nature's wondrous interplay of colors, shapes, and light. When retired, I finally had the time to explore these creative roads for so many years not taken, to enjoy the learning processes of how to translate connections, perceptions, and emotions with an artist's tools...and I've been having the time of my life. A few words of thanks...My gratitude goes out to inspirational painting instructors (in chronological order) Cindi Kollman (at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden), Ann Chenoweth, and Christopher Wynn, who have made my watercolor journey something close to miraculous.
Also, I must give a little credit to the internet, where I learned the basics of working with beads. Finally, my heartfelt thanks to many supportive friends, who have always encouraged even my most high-flung flights of fancy. |