At a young age, my parents recognized my artistic abilities after I scribbled with a black crayon and called it “Dean” (my father). For a toddler’s drawing, it had a familiar resemblance to my dad, thus beginning my lifelong love of art. In elementary school, my parents enrolled me in private lessons continuing until high school. I enrolled in college as a Fine Arts major; however, during my sophomore year, a mental health crisis sidelined my college career for nearly two decades.
While creating a color palette for a commissioned, realistic oil painting, my father-in-law at the time, became intrigued by my palette knife work. Marveling at the prep work on my canvas pad, he stated, “Do not throw those away – someone would buy that! I find it fascinating and very difficult to believe that is not the painting.” Those comments resonated in my head although several years passed before I incorporated this very distinct and very stylized technique into my abstract artwork. I credit my ex father-in-law for initially instilling the seed to create my distinct alla prima abstracts.
In 1988, my daughter was born and doctors discovered she was severely/profoundly deaf. Through painting we found ways to bond. We would sit together on the floor learning sign language, signing the colors of paint I used. It was also during this time that I switched from oils to acrylics, finding them easier to manage with a very rambunctious, deaf toddler in the house.
Having a life-long desire to work in advertising, I returned to college in the late ‘90s, obtaining a BFA in Visual Communication, with honors, from The Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2000, I gave birth to my son and returned to school in 2001, polishing my portfolio at The Creative Circus in Atlanta, Georgia. I graduated with a certificate in Art Direction in 2003. As an award winning art director, I found working in the advertising field immensely rewarding.
While obtaining my BFA and certificate, I studied color theory, color harmony and the psychology of color intensely. One of my favorite abstract artists, Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter and art theorist, influenced my beliefs even more. I too, believe in color as spiritual, that color expresses intimately the inner most feelings of the soul. Often without a conscious thought. Intense studies in the intricacies of color ameliorated my artwork.
In 2008, my son was diagnosed as autistic and with a very rare but benign brain tumor. I found myself struggling, preventing me from working. I stopped painting for nearly three years. After a near-death experience in the summer of 2012 I slowly began to paint once again. Today, I have reached a point of peace with my art. Through life’s struggles, I have gained perspective – an understanding of my art – as a way to both express and heal myself.
After living nearly 20 years in the Atlanta, Georgia, area, I am currently a middle Tennesee artist residing in a tiny, antique market and artist type community called Bell Buckle, approximately an hour southwest of Nashville, Tennessee.
