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Bio........ I became known as the class artist from first grade, and as other artists
know, that meant I was expected to make all the signs and decorate all
the bulletin boards throughout my school career. I won a poster contest
in third grade (1963. If you're doing the math, I was born in 1955)
where I'd drawn a huge insect strapped to a rocket, stating "Send
Litterbugs to the Moon!" I still have strong anti-litter sentiments.
Dad had always wanted to paint, so when I was in fifth grade we enrolled
together in a painting class held above the fire station. I remember
feeling so proud and special to be with him. Although I identified as
an artist I got the clear, unrelenting message from all well-meaning
sources that art could only be a hobby, not something one could do for
a living. Our family went to West Africa as missionaries when I was 12. On the
way to missionary training in North Carolina for the four months prior
to leaving the states, we stopped in Gatlinburg, TN. It was there that
my life changed. I met two men painting portraits. Grown men. Making
their livings doing art. I interviewed them intently to be sure of this
new fact. Yes, they had houses. Cars. Families. Supported by art! I
made a vow there in Gatlinburg as fervent and sacred as any Scarlett
O'Hara made with her fist in the air above the turnip patch: I WOULD
be an artist for my living! I would do portraits! I figured out that I needed subjects in order to practice my portrait
making skill. Still ones. So I spent my allowance on bags of candy and
had a number of willing subjects among the other missionary children
who would sit still for ten minutes for a piece of candy. Another ten
minutes, another piece of candy. I was exceedingly popular, even as
a tyrant artist.When we got to Africa, I drew constantly. I once paid
a camel driver 50 pesewas (the rough equivalent of 50 cents) to stand
next to his seated camel in my back yard so that I could draw them.
By the time I was 14 I could get a reliable likeness. When I was 18
and in the army (not a good idea, by the way), I made arrangements to
do portrait sketches in the officers club and the enlisted men's club
in the evenings. I quickly realized I made more doing that than by working
for the army. I got out and continued to work on army bases doing portraits
as a civilian in Monterey and San Francisco, CA. For several years I
worked in malls at Christmas and resort towns in summer. Pastel portraits,
first on velour because, hey! I didn't know any better. Then on pastel
paper (usually Canson), then on sanded surfaces. In 1986 my young daughter and I moved to San Antonio after school in
Kansas City in search of warmer winters. I've had a private chiropractic
practice since. I did portraits occasionally when someone discovered
that I could. In 1990 I won another poster contest, this time for the
official Fiesta poster of San Antonio. Big hoopla short-lived, but it
woke my artist self up a bit. It took until 2002 for me to come fully
awake and swing my focus back to art in a big way. I joined GROUPS!
I participated in artist exhibitions! I met OTHER ARTISTS! Life hasn't
been the same since. I now work as often in oil as I do pastel. I do
paintings of other things besides faces now. (Oh, but how I love a good
face!)
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