As a mom of four, an adoptive mom, a special needs mom, and now a grandmother, my crazy days tend to be super full - but not in a noisy way (which would be stressful, to say the least). Technically speaking, I only have my youngest little guy at home with us now, since my oldest three are adults; so after school drop off, I do really try to have a chunk of the morning devoted to art. I find that that’s when I am the freshest for work, and many days I’m painting, sketching, or working on projects until lunchtime. Some mornings, I’m sitting in a therapist's office for our adopted son with Down syndrome, but life is full of my two favorite things: motherhood and art. Okay... and gardening, oh, and paper crafting, and then there’s decorating, and making cookies and loving on my grandbabies… let’s just say there’s a lot going on, but in a garden, classical music kind of way.

I’ve been a watercolor artist for around 25 years, but recently I dipped my nervous toes into the oil world and joined a class. I was nervous because what if I was terrible, horribly no-good at it? It’s so incredibly different than watercolors, but thankfully, I loved that first introduction to oils, and I think I’m cautiously hooked. I did make a rather hot mess of myself that first class, and boy--oils are hard to clean, but with my art background, I didn’t find it too challenging to pick up. You just have to think backwards from watercolors. How hard can that be?

I found myself unconsciously trying to preserve the white of the canvas and painting light to dark, which is what you have to do in watercolors, but it’s just the opposite in oils. With oils, you paint dark to light, so that was a huge flip in my mind. I’ve also recently been challenging myself to paint really large watercolor pieces, and I just completed my first full sheet botanical (22x30) that I painted from a bouquet of flowers my husband bought me. I really forced myself to slow down and take a lot of time on the details, and the process was really lovely and amazingly frustrating.

I’m very eclectic when it comes to my art. Many artists will only paint one thing, but I just get too bored doing that. I very much want to learn new things, new styles, and I’m constantly scanning for new inspiration and subjects. I think oils are the only medium I waited so long to try, but I really have delved deeply into watercolors, graphite, acrylics, mural painting, collage, pressed flower art, portraits, pet portraits, botanicals, still life, and so much more. If I’m running into a creative roadblock, I like to start something really challenging or something that I’ve never painted before. This always shoves me out of my artistic comfort zone and pushes me to conquer a harder subject or medium. It also causes me to question my own sanity.

I’m not a moody, edgy artist at all. I love to express the details of how light reflects through a ball jar, or how it softens a leaf or petal. I want people to see my work and see the wonder of creation in the world that we live in. When I get lost in the petal labyrinth of a hydrangea, I often pause to ponder how such loveliness could arise from the drab, brown earth of my gardens. Yes, I am an avid gardener, so many of my muses arise from the hours I am kneeling amongst the flowers and weeds, hummingbirds zipping past my ears. I have painted a myriad of local butterflies, moths, and bumblebees simply by observing and photographing them amongst my many colorful posies and vivid veggies. One year, I did a hummingbird study simply based upon the marvel I had for those minuscule, shimmering birds who were so feisty, dueling it out at the feeder.

As far as trends go, I’m not a trend follower. I do what I love; it’s as simple as that. If I’m painting something I don’t love, it just doesn’t flow, and I hate it, and I stomp around and wonder if I’m even qualified to be an artist... the artistic joy gets snuffed right out (not to be dramatic or anything). Trends come and go, but it’s not where I want to focus (much to the dismay of everyone around me). I believe that real beauty, light and color in art that draws one’s gaze trend towards the heavens… I think those pieces never go out of style. Why is this, you ask? Because somewhere deep inside each of us, we yearn for the uncommon in this world. We marvel at the sunsets and snowflakes that so often inspire us to consider something bigger than our simple selves. 

What arose from that moment was a desire to get him home to us, and since adoption has a lot of costs, I started simply painting birds and selling them to raise the money we needed for our fees. I had this idea to paint birds on antique hymnal pages, and suddenly people were mailing me boxes of musty hymnals they’d had stored in barns and attics. I got 74 original orders within weeks that took me 3 months to paint and fulfill. This was a lot!

From doodling non-stop on my arms during boring high school classes, to the murals of my twenties that graced the hallways of hospitals, pediatric offices and hospice homes... falling in love with watercolors, to illustrating children’s books and teaching art in various venues, it has been quite the journey! I don’t ever want to find my niche, and that’s probably why I’ll never be an art influencer, but that’s ok by me. I don’t want to be in the box; I adore trying new things and am ever fascinated by what’s next. My Instagram page is so eclectic, you’d think 10 artists are contributing, but no. It’s just me. Interested in everything, and very often cleaning my paintbrush in my coffee by mistake. 

Why do I think my style has changed? Well, I get bored. I want to try something new and exciting, but do not ever force me to go to concerts, ride a roller coaster, or do anything that requires adrenaline. No, you’ll find me with garden dirt underneath my fingernails, cutting out tiny flowers to collage with, gluing dozens of paper stars for Christmas decor, slapping out water for a watercolor painting that tickled my fancy, or embarrassingly going out in public with oil paint smeared on my face. It is what it is at this point. There are many dark things in this world, but I hope that when people see my work, it’s just a breath of beauty and that maybe, just maybe, it makes them lean in and smile. And as always, take the risk. The seed must die before it becomes the flower.