BEGINNINGS
Raised on a cotton and tobacco farm in Piedmont North Carolina, I was surrounded by the rawness of nature; consequently I developed a lifelong interest or perhaps a familiarity for vernacular architecture amid forests, expansive fields and lorded skies. In other words, landscape painting of rural North Carolina feels just right to me. I paint what I know. (Sorry mean art professor who criticized painting what you “love”.)
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Writings by Karl the cat: 6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t6t576767676767676767676767676767676767676767676
Living among the wilds of nature was an interesting beginning. Unlike most kids, I never rode a bike to school, or walked through a neighborhood to friends’ houses, but I have vivid memories of riding those pungent school buses traveling past rolling farmland to school.
Our wild kingdom were the forest and creeks.
My early memories were sitting against 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 apparently liked the tobacco fumes as well. He won.
We rode horses down Pleasant Garden Road passing Clark’s farm with destination Wilson’s Store in our sights. We foraged the woods and studied the Milky Way many summer nights on a blanket in the backyard.
I was a wild child who once climbed to the roof of our two story house trying to create a make-shift sliding board after discovering one at a friend’s house. Can you imagine my mother turning her station wagon into our long driveway to find her child sliding down a roof without any guard rails? That sums up my childhood – if it was lacking, I invented it.
My friends and I with the help of her dad built time machines and pretended to be either the Jetsons or the early settlers of America. We did a lot of time travel before it was cool.
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.
I earned a degree in economics and business to compete in a male dominated world only dabbling in art during my off time. With degree in hand, I moved to NYC (twice) to seek adventure in the big city lights. One job was in finance and my second position was working on the 1982 gubernatorial race for Lewis E. Lehrman vs. Mario Cuomo; my boss lost the race and the rest is history. I adapted during that campaign and worked harder than I ever had in my life…and I thought that would be the end of my politics. (Boy, was I wrong.)
I married and spent the next 38 years in Florida dabbling in different interests and finally settling (if you can call it that) in to politics.
While in my late 30s and 40s I fulfilled another dream and returned to college to earn a BFA. The BFA part never happened, but I did immerse myself in art, the elements of design, drawing, painting and studying art history. I haven’t put down my paint brush since.
Going back to school in the 1990s was an opportunity to finish interests dear to my heart. Paint, despite other people!
PRESENT
Today I live in Blowing Rock, NC with my dear husband, our two dogs and my two cats, Boo or 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 comfortable chaos which fits neatly in my life. Don’t ask me to find anything.
I have tried to retire from politics, but alas, I found local races I’m assisting. I am drawn to the political fervor of campaigns that reflect my core values.
I’ve learned in my 6th decade that nature has a way of circling back into our lives; I welcome the peace and quiet of painting and exploring the countryside around me. Perhaps it’s a throwback to my childhood. It is so much more valuable to these old bones than the city lights I was drawn to in my 20s.
If only I could find the Whippoorwill.