I was born and raised in Southern California. I am the third of four children – two older brothers and one younger sister.
(That's me in the red sweater in the picture on the left. And I am the bride in the picture on the right.)
My parents always encouraged us to be involved in a variety of activities so we were always busy and learning new things. One of my favorite activities was drawing and painting. I can’t say that I was a natural born artist. I just have always enjoyed it. I was always fascinated by fashion, so I would draw various gowns that might be worn to a prom or a fancy occasion. My dad thought that I would end up going into fashion design. I thought about it, but then I found out how much sewing was involved if you went through the program – and that wasn’t for me.
I did go on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in what was called “Interior Environment” which was basically an interior design program. I did work for various designers for a while, but I later went back to school to get my teaching certificate. I have taught elementary education for over 25 years and I have really enjoyed working art into so many of my lessons.
I have continued my love of drawing and watercolor painting. About a year and a half ago, my grandson Joseph and I were playing with his sidewalk chalk on his driveway. I had never really gotten into using chalks in my art because I thought they would be too messy. Well, I got very into my sidewalk art even though Joseph quickly lost interest – he was only 2 at the time. I found that I loved being able to blend the colors with my fingers just the way that I wanted them. I spent the next several months practicing pastels while looking at YouTube videos and studying books on how to do pastels. So you will see some of my results from time to time.
In the past few years I have notice an ever increasing number of coloring books. So I decided that I would add coloring book designing to my list of artistic endeavors.
I taught myself how to use Photoshop so that I could take pictures of scenes that I would enjoy coloring and turn them into coloring sheets for others to color as well.
So you can see that I am always looking for other adventures in art. It looks like my next adventure will take me to Yellowstone National Park next summer. A friend and colleague of mine has asked me to join her in attending a nature journaling seminar next summer.
Here are some pictures of my family just for fun.
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