The human heart feels things the eyes cannot see, and knows what the mind cannot understand. Robert Vallett
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I was lucky enough to be born into a family who loved art and beauty. My earliest memories include gathering armloads of daffodils and lilies of the valley with my mother and playing my child`s piano with my father. My father was an artist, and he and my mother used their creativity to cook, arrange flowers, create sculptures, garden and paint. I have a sketchbook in which my father and I each painted versions of Cape Cod lighthouses. We played the piano and sang, and had one of the first "stereos" available.
Despite my love of music and art I majored in biology and chemistry in college! I took art and music classes as much as possible and kept my love for the arts alive. I married my college sweetheart, Dicken, got a graduate degree in Family Support and Education and had my two dear children, Nina and Ben. I worked with young and new families, families at risk and then adoptive families. I directed an adoption center in Vermont, placing 400 babies and children with Vermont parents. I continued to paint, taking watercolor classes and painting at night.
Moving to the Pacific Northwest allowed me more time to paint and new images to explore. Discovering pastels was a revelation for me! Pastels captivated me with their vibrancy and myriad of colors, their spontaneity and immediacy, and their messiness. I have taken classes from many Northwest and nationally recognized pastelists and continue to soak up the rich artistic environment of LaConner. My work has been rewarded by entrance into juried shows, awards, and the sale of many paintings. I am honored to have my framed work hanging in homes from Maine to Alaska.
My paintings are not replicas of a specific place or season, though I keep a small camera with me always. I rarely drive ten miles without stopping to capture a moment of beauty that catches my eye. But my paintings are impressions of those moments and expressions of my joy. I want people to gather from my work a sense of calm and awe at even the ordinary sights, to appreciate and honor the land, and to know the tenderness and wonder I feel.
My favorite poet, Mary Oliver, describes my reason for painting in a section of her poem, "Mindful."
Every day I see or I hear something that more or less
kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle
in the haystack of light. It is what I was born for--- to look, to listen,
to lose myself inside this soft world--- to instruct myself over and over
in joy, and acclamation.
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