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I currently live in Stowe, Vermont. In the summer of 2003 I left
my home in Arizona with whatever fit in my car, mostly camping
equipment, a few of my calligraphy drawings and big hopes of
finding out if I could create a lifestyle that involved making
art. I had been a massage therapist for close to 20 years and was
burned out and searching for meaning and passion in myself and my
life. Being out alone, camping and meeting other people doing the
same thing felt incredibly fulfilling...I began meeting other women who
were also massage therapists with artistic inclinations. I met
people on the road that opened their homes and lives to me. I will
never forget those people as long as I live.
I spent my
first winter in Minnesota and struggled to find work, so massage
was easy to fall back on, yet not what I wanted to be doing.
Fortunately I met another therapist who was very artistic and we
spent many weeks together making art. She enjoyed painting
on glass and I loved it even if it was cheap bake on acrylic
paint. It led to my desire to work with glaze and ceramic
tile...which led to a journey that landed me into Vermont.
I left Minnesota late Spring in 2004, spending weeks camping throughout
Minnesota, into Canada and back down into the Adirondack
Mountains. Thinking I would head south when the weather cooled, I
headed to the Green Mountains and was smitten upon my very first hour in
Vermont. It was MAGICAL and so intriguing. I felt at home
even though I hadn't spent even a night here.
After a few weeks camping in Vermont I found myself in Stowe, showing my
tile designs to a local pottery place and accepting their hospitality to
camp on their land and sup with them until I could find a place to live
and get signed up for some pottery classes. I rented a
studio apt. in Waterbury, got another job as a
massage therapist and began concentrating on making art.
The art that I started making wasn't at all what I could have
imagined. I thought I was going to be making tiles and instead
found myself picking up found metal and other objects. I started collecting railroad plates
too, they were so
beautiful and intriguing....they were new territory that I'd never seen
anyone do anything with and it felt safe because I was unfamiliar with
most mediums and too impatient to start from the beginning with paints
and even pottery. This was MINE to "create" and I could
make it up as I went.
Within
a year of living in Vermont I had made enough art to start
exhibiting. In Jan 2006 I got gallery representation at the
West Branch Gallery & Sculpture Park in Stowe,
Vermont.
Fast
Forward to 2008. I continue to exhibit locally and the big ?
is am I gonna get out of state Gallery Representation one of these
days? Who knows. So far I'm selling my smaller pieces
online, and the bigger pieces in the local galleries. Gotta
branch out at some point if I want to support myself with my
art. Back to work......
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