I have been drawing and painting since I could hold a pencil. I grew up in a small Maine town and was never one to be content doing nothing. I grew bored fast so I was constantly creating. I loved to sing, dance, sew, draw and paint. My mother used to sit in my room for hours watching me put on shows. If “American Idol” was around then, I'm sure I would have auditioned!
I won my first art contest in fourth grade and realized people really liked my artwork. I got requests from kids to draw pictures all the time. In high school I excelled in chorus and art and began selling my work. I drew tattoos, sold wood burnings on coffee tables and drew pictures for yearbooks. I even got out of classes for two weeks to draw a huge mural on the school walls!
After high school I went to hairdressing school. One day I was at the beach with friends and saw an artist drawing portraits of people. I watched her for hours and then practiced in my dorm for days. My roommates started to buy my portraits and pretty soon I was known as the “hairdressing artist”. I knew working at Burger King for extra money was not up my alley!
Now, I absolutely love being a professional artist. It's in my soul! I am a single mother with two beautiful daughters and they love to get their hands dirty and create with me also. I have budding little artists! I teach art classes at a daycare center and give private lessons. You may see me at art and craft shows or on the boardwalk by the beach doing caricatures for tourists. My work is displayed at galleries, stores, restaurants, coffee shops and even in Christmas cards! Much of my work is of custom drawing portraits of people, pets and homes. I also enjoy creating abstracts, scenic paintings, tole and folk painting and lately I've gotten back into murals! One of my favorites is a “Spiderman” for a boy's room -he appears to be jumping right out of the wall!
As you can tell I am a very versatile artist. Some of my other talents include: sewing and photography. Most of all, I enjoy knowing my creations are gracing the walls of many homes and am particularly satisfied from the feedback I receive from my customers who tell me things like “my mother cried when she opened up her portrait drawing”.
