I am very grateful to tell my story. It began when I was a little child. I remember trying to paint with whatever watercolors I had the sunset just west of my front porch. The large unobstructed sky  was my joy and made me feel happy every day. It wasn’t until our family moved to Zurich, Switzerland in the summer of 1967, when I was 17 that I was able to take my first art class. I attended the International School located in Kilchberg,, outside of Zurich. Rhoda Issac was my art teacher and I remember that she told my parents what a “natural sense of color” I had. I was awarded a first-place ribbon at the end of the school year in the juried art show for my “West Texas landscape” painting. When I returned from Europe I enrolled in the local junior college for the fall semester. I didn’t have much confidence in my ability to take an art class, but I never lost interest in the medium and continued to paint at home. After finishing two years of junior college, I enrolled in Baylor University and took my first art class.  I was very under confident, but I had a desire to learn more. I worked steadily at the art classes and had enough hours to minor in art with a Physical Education major and a secondary teaching certificate. My first opportunity to teach art was as a substitute art teacher. I found other seasoned art teachers to be helpful since I didn’t know enough. I also tried to take some workshops to pick up ideas and learn skills. I realized that teaching art wasn’t for the lazy teacher and it wasn’t always fun nor enjoyable without  first learning how to engage my students. I continued to face the challenges of maintaining a strong and positive atmosphere in the classroom. I wanted my students to love my class. I had three children by the time I was able to teach full-time and my husband, a football coach, was gone a lot with his duties as a coach. My creative spirit kept me alive as I fought to stay active and alert. As the years progressed and the children grew my time was divided by their activities and my desire to study art. Finally, my sons and daughter went off to college, and I finished my Master’s degree I had more time for myself and I felt renewed and encouraged to continue toward my goal of becoming a painter. I loved teaching in the college visual art department and made friends with my other colleagues, who were very encouraging to me. We developed strong ties through our love for teaching and art. I am so grateful for my college teaching years which continued to challenge my teaching skills and knowledge. I discovered how important it was to do the research and to paint whenever I could.

After I retired at the age of sixty-six I still had energy and good health. I painted as often as I could and challenged myself to develop a statement about my artwork.

As I seriously began to observe my paintings I realized that my artwork revolved around “my life’s journey.” Included in my statement is the idea that I am influenced by experiences past and present, my work is a combination of conscious and subconscious thoughts.  The subjects of my abstract work relates to the following: nature, my family, events, and my spiritual beliefs and often a combination of these. I usually paint in color but at times I have been challenged to change my pallet into neutral tones. I desire for my artwork to have an emotional impact for the viewer’s pleasure. I hope that something from my soul, that which is intangible, impacts the viewer so that they can decide how to interpret the artwork. I desire not to be prideful because it is God who made me, not myself, he has allowed me the gift of time and creative thought to grow and develop. I am grateful to all the people who take a look at my work. Today, as  my work continues to evolve, I hope that as long as I am able,  I can enjoy working with my hands. Because I enjoy international travel its been my desire to continue to develop relationships with artists all over the world.
One of the most precious of all my international experiences was the fact that I had a solo show in the summer of 2004 in Taksim, Istanbul, Turkey. I’ll never forget the people who came and even though I do not speak Turkish the artwork found a common language as we enjoyed one another. I want to thank all the artists past and present who have impacted my life.