Consistently scanning the “for sale” ads in the Pasadena Star-News did not get me any closer to having a horse appear in my backyard. But a nine-year-old’s hopes and dreams for owning a horse have serious staying power. So I began drawing them—the horses that is. I might not have owned one, but I could fill pages with the substance of their beauty. I decorated my school book covers with horse portraits, and other classmates started asking me to draw steeds on their covers too. Was this the start of my career? Perhaps, but I didn’t know back then.
Fast forward, trading southern California for the Rocky Mountains and life continued on. But art remained. It’s that pull of something that seeds a desire inside you, that you may forget about from time to time, but it doesn’t ever go away.
I'm glad You're here!
School, work, and life, yes all those things, and still the pull of creative work pulsed through. One fine arts degree later, I did what any graduate who wanted to eat would do, I started work in graphic design. And design I did, for engineers, planners, regular folk, art galleries, zoos, relatives, schools, and churches, but not necessarily for myself. While I thrived on dialing in the “perfect” visual solution for my client, I allowed my style to sit way up in the cheap seats.
Life continued and my boys arrived. Talk about a creative job! I had landed the jackpot. Every aspect of raising my boys felt like the ultimate in creative work. Picking up after playtime? A task in singing and dancing until the work is done. Learning to tie a shoe? It involved bunnies and ears and well, you get the picture. But the little ones grow as they are apt to do, and they continue their own creative journeys, flying away.
So where did the “me” go? Well, apparently she was taking a nice long nap. #sojealous. A few years ago I stumbled upon a free iPad creative workflow class and signed up for it. It incorporated simple lessons on using the iPad creatively. Before the revelations in this class, my iPad simply showed me books, my email and allowed me to surf the web, but to draw and create? Mind blown. I had the tools, I had the skills, I just needed to do all the creative THINGS!
That boulder tipped the crest of the hill and took off. I didn’t even know I had been rolling it uphill. After some creative courses, a pile of arty books, and that fire burning within, “me” is back and ready to beautify the world. We all need beauty to enrich our lives, join me on this journey and let’s make it happen.
These days I design surface patterns, art prints and stationery. I’m never far from my iPad, trusty pencil and a delicious cup of coffee. I consider sending art into the world a gift of creative living. Sometimes it’s enclosed in an envelope with a postage stamp or nestled within a frame. Creating is the passion that fuels my drive to share beauty.