MY ORIGINS
I was born in sunny, but southern California, the second of six children. The full household was not an easy place to grow up in especially for a shy, sensitive little girl. Creativity was my outlet and my solace. I can't remember when I wasn't making something. I was 6 when I won my first art award and my writing gained the attention of the school principal to whom I was often sent to read my work. I never considered art a particular talent of mine, just something I had fun with, until early in High School when I was accidently enrolled in, not the beginning art class I had asked for, but an advanced life drawing class. Too shy to tell the teacher of the mistake, I stayed on and found I could not only accomplish the projects but exceled at them. It wasn't until my first year in college when taking another art class "for fun" that a persistent professor convinced me to change from a Writing degree to an Art degree. It was the second best decision I made in my younger year.
THE WANDERING THAT STARTED IT ALL
The first best decision was to move from California when I graduated at the age of 21 and start a nomadic adventure that would last for 6 years. I had completed my Art degree at CSU Long Beach with honors and with a series of color studies cataloged in the University museum, as well as starting both a line of handcrafted bead and leather jewelry and a small press literary magazine. But having lived my whole life in some section of Southern California, I felt a pull to leave and expand my experiences. I ended up moving 18 times through three states and 9 cities, looking for inspiring images, experiences, people, and ideas to feed both my art and writing. And I found all that in abundance.
My stint in the rugged, open lands of New Mexico, the lush hills and cultured urban areas of Northern California, the majestic mountains of Colorado, as well as many, many miles on the open road all over this great country, Canada and Mexico influences my imagery more than anything else I've seen in my life. I hold a special penchant for the colors and flora of the deserts and arid plains where I suspect the recurring tendrils, shimmering mineral shades, and sharp shapes in of my work are rooted.
MY PASSIONS
My wanderlust was only halted by the desire to return to school for one more degree, this time in Creative Writing. Writing was my first passion and was what made me realize that I could help and influence others in positive and very satisfying ways. I wrote my first book at the age of nine which garnered enough attention to get a teacher to contact a publication company. Alas, the shy little girl that I was, remembering a traumatic experience in the second grade when my award winning, realistic stuffed rabbit was taken from me to go tour the state for months, adamantly refused to let my book be sent off to some big, scary, important people who might never return it. The idea of copies had not yet been explained to me.
My fear of big, scary, important people may have thwarted early fame and fortune but instead I struggled through, and mostly enjoyed, a series of interesting jobs, extensive writing work and intermittent but well received forays into selling hand crafted and custom jewelry and clothing. It wasn't until 17 years out of art school that I was introduced to polymer clay. It was like coming home.
MY LIFE AS A POLYMER CLAY ARTIST
I had never been as obsessed with an art material as I was, and still am, with polymer clay. Four months after picking it up, I entered my first art show and sold out the handful of pieces I brought. Two months later I was juried into the country's biggest genre art show, DragonCon, selling all but one piece at that show. I gave up my corporate job, transformed my attached garage into a studio, and took on a life as a combination writer and artist fulltime. That was almost 5 years ago and I'm happy to say, I'm still at it.
The one truly hard thing I have had to deal with is my health. Shortly after setting myself up as a fulltime artist and writer, I came down with a series of debilitating and mysterious ailments. After two years we discovered I had developed a sensitivity to chemicals used in the clays and resins I was working with. Luckily, polymer clay manufacturers changed their formula, eliminating the phthalates that contributed to my illness so I could return to claying, albeit, I always wear gloves, and my oven sits in an exhaust closet. I can no longer work with resins, due to BPA reactions, without what amounts to a hazmat outfit (which I have, mind you!) and my immune system now recognizes a bizarre variety of foods as allergens.
But even after all that, I consider myself lucky. I was forced to realize the danger of extensive exposure to chemicals, not only in my art work but all my household products and even in my food. I now make all my own make-up, most of my beauty products, buy chemical free cleaning products, and eat whole and organic as much as possible. I feel better than ever, have been able to lose weight, my skin has cleared up, and a pre-diabetic condition I have had for 20 years, reversed and I have no signs of it whatsoever. It’s amazing what a few little changes can do for you.
Now I am back to balancing my art and my writing with several new projects on the horizon. I've decided to merge my writing and art with the advent of a new Polymer centric magazine, The Polymer Arts, as well as my own books and the development of a non-fiction art and self-help publication company. Yes, I stay busy (maybe a bit too much!) but I love the life I have and hope I can do this until I take my last breath.
