BEGINNINGS
Raised on a cotton and tobacco farm in Piedmont North Carolina, I was surrounded by the beauty of nature, consequently I developed a lifelong interest in  rural vernacular and landscape painting, focusing on barns, trees, fields and historic architecture.

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The countryside was an interesting beginning.  Unlike most kids, I never rode a bike to school, or walked through a neighborhood to friends’ houses.  My memories were playing in the wild kingdom of forests, creeks and rummaging through abandoned farm houses and barns, often hidden behind overgrown jungles of weeds.

During harvesting season, I would nestle up near the tobacco barn with my coloring book or just any old book in hand, drawn to the aroma of leaves curing – I once encountered a rattle snake who  liked the tobacco fumes as well.   He won that day.

We rode horses to the local Wilson’s Groceries gas station for candy, hardly a person or car in sight. 

We hiked the woods endlessly, studied the Milky Way on summer nights, and played soldiers in the creeks.  Pebbles were our gold, we didn’t need guns.

My friends and I, with the help of Lee’s dad, built a time machine and pretended to be the Jetsons or early settlers of America.   We did a lot of time travel in those early years.

Mother let us draw and paint on our walls, had she had more time on  this Earth, she would’ve been an artist too, but life ended early for her. 

Art was my salvation.  I was named after my mom’s best friend who was coincidentally….an artist. 

While my degree was in economics and business so I could compete in a male dominated world, I returned to college at 40 to study art.  The rest is history, I’ve never put my paintbrush down. 

My husband and I spent 38 years in Florida where I engaged in art, politics, and other personal interests, we traveled the world and walked the trails of both Florida and North Carolina and hiked many foreign destinations we visited.

PRESENT

Today I live in Blowing Rock, NC  with my dear husband, our two dogs and my two cats, Boo aka Psycho as my husband lovingly calls her and Karl;  the cats reside comfortably in my basement art studio lest they not be bothered by the pesky canines.

My space is organized chaos which fits neatly in my life.  

I have found local races I’m assisting with;  I am drawn to the political fervor of campaigns that reflect the values I share with the candidate.

In my sixth decade, I’ve learned that nature has a way of circling back into our lives;  I welcome the peacefulness of painting and exploring the countryside around me. 

Perhaps it’s a throwback to my childhood.  It is much more valuable to these old bones than the city lights I was drawn to in my 20s.  

I keep looking for the Whippoorwill.