Your Lucky Day

About the Artist

My interest in the arts is long and rich. It started with my wonderful Uncle Roy who was a magnificent sculptor. His preferred medium was bronze, but he created some marvelous porcelain vases and busts. Sadly, most of his works were destroyed by his second wife.
Uncle Roy was so entertaining when he was preparing to start a sculpture (not sure if it was for my benefit or this was how he got started). He would take a pencil in both hands and begin to draw his ideas with both hands (each hand drawing half of the rendition). I was fascinated and wanted to do this too (what a laugh). He taught me to draw, however I only use one hand at a time. From there I migrated to watercolors, not happy with this. Then I was on to oils.
Eva Zeitz took me in hand as a very young child (6 or 7) and had me over painting in her studio. (She lived across the street and was fast friends with my Grandmother). She was a great inspiration to me and encouraged me to create and expand my own style. She willed all her brushes, paints and canvases to me. It was a wonderful legacy for me to inherit at the age of 12.
After this I was, pretty much a self-taught painter and was prolific until my marriage in 1975. During my childhood and teens, I also created LOTS of embroidered items and tatted items. Most of which were given away as presents. I have entered many original art and embroidered items in the various County Fairs in California and won numerous awards. During my marriage, I owned a custom clothing company as well as a ski wear company where I designed all the styles.
While living in Yosemite National Park I was introduced to Pine Needle Basketry. So great, I had lots of material from our property in Boot Jack and surrounding area. I didn’t think of selling to mass producing them, but just did a few and then put it on the back burner while raising our family.
During the years 1980 to 1989 I exclusively provided custom clothing for June Allyson. I also created and designed custom equestrian apparel from 1980 to 1997.
During the 1990’s I worked as a Risk Data Analyst and Risk Manager for several Hospitals and Acute Care Psychiatric Hospitals as well as managing a Horse Show Circuit at our Ranch (Sierra Equestrian Center), My art skills took another turn at this time when I took over the Graphic Arts portion of putting together a Horse Show Premium with all the advertising associated with this. This was a new challenge and one that I took to readily.
When we moved from the ranch in 2002, I moved on to owning my own business that managed Government Grants and worked with ex-offenders to assist them in assimilating back into society. During this time, I began designing the stage for the Church Vacation Bible School Productions (week long plays). Our VBS moved from church to church with all of the scripts and Stage decorations moving with them this continued and became more elaborate stage designs after my company closed own in 2009 when California almost went bankrupt and all the grants were canceled. Many grants were not reinstated, most of mine were not and ended up being assimilated into the Workforce Connection Programs.
2009 I made the move and “Retired”. This was a real laugh as I managed to become MORE BUSY since retirement than I was when I was working. We expanded the VBS Stage Design to include GREAT crafts for the Kids. I also started Painting again. I decided that Acrylics were going to be my medium as I was doing lots of big murals and I was using lots of house paint for the larger Barn Wood paintings. This worked well as the colors are more durable and last longer than regular acrylic paints when hung outside. However I have now found that if I seal my Barn Wood paintings with Clear Exterior Acrylic it has a great UV protection and I can use regular Artist Acrylic Paint.
In 2013 I picked up making Pine Needle Baskets again. I started putting my own spin on them by painting the center wood bottoms with various birds and animal paintings. Then I added a few landscapes to the baskets. The Painted Gourd‘s were next to add to the baskets. I now have several lines the Flights of Fantasy, Yosemite, Wolf, and Gourd lines that are each unique and different styles. I took each of the specialty lines into my paintings also.
Now I concentrate on Acrylic Paintings, and Pine Needle Memory Baskets, Memory Catchers and Coasters. I prefer pine needle basketry and items that I have painted on various pieces of barn wood and gourds. I like the pine needle basketry as the raw materials speak to me and I can pick them up locally as well as at the coast. The only items I buy for my baskets are the stone beads, metal beads, arrowheads, and the sinew type thread, everything else is provided by nature. My Acrylic Paintings on Barn wood are unique and really speak to the artist in me with the great texture that is achieved with the paint on the Barn wood.