Born in Fayetteville to a mother who never realized her true artistic promise, I was fortunate to be raised in a home that was always supportive of artistic projects and creative play. The crayon box was always full, and, outnumbering the grade reports in the keepsake chest were the stacks of “art pieces” that I and my siblings were encouraged to create from our earliest days.
In my young adulthood, any blank wall or white t-shirt was a canvas, and I found ways to work creativity into my life even as I didn’t consider myself an Artist with a capital “A”. The walls of my childrens’ rooms, white t-shirts, my garden… all signs pointed to where have found myself today. It just took time before I was able to allow myself to inhabit this space as an Artist without fear.
I am a bit of a creative magpie, and find it difficult to land on one medium or artistic project for very long. To that end, I have a table-top screen printer and a rigid table-top loom in my studio still waiting to be put to use, and hoards of fabric and buttons I collected when I was making soft sculpture and appliqued home decor.
My favorite materials have always been found or repurposed, perhaps born of my non-existent art budget when my kids were small. Even with the budget I have today, I find I am more inspired by items that have some history or a previous life than I am by newly manufactured items. Thrift stores and yard sales are my favorite sources for frames and canvases, and vintage paper, bits of metal and old lace, buttons, and other odds and ends find their way into my mixed-media work.
The projects I am focused on currently are paper collage. I have been using found papers for many years, but only recently discovered the joy of combining images and textures to create humorous or thought-provoking pieces using only paper with an occasional addition of ink or paint. I’m a freelance writer, and have been writing little poems to share on my website, and the collage works are created as imagery to accompany the poems. I’m quite enamored of the whole process and have found myself missing the studio on days when I am not able to get out there to create. I guess that’s a sign I’ve found “my thing”? At least, “my thing for now”.