A love of music and nature inspires creativity
I grew up in a very small town. Like one stop light small. Like no McDonald's small. Back then our video store was the gas station. In high school, it was our hang out. My parents refused to spend money on cable tv. That, and I don't even think it was available to our country road until around 1989. They finally got it in about '06. We weren't allowed to own an Atari or Nintendo. We ran around the woods on our two acres of land instead. It was back in the days when your mom could kick you out of the house because she was going to clean it all day. And you and your brother and a few neighbor kids would kick around in the crick and find rusty cars and old glass bottles in the woods. Maybe save a toad from a snake. Make grasshoppers and bumble bees get in fights in jars. Run from coyotes. Pick raspberries by the side of the road and make a home made pie.
That's what we did in the summer. But the winters were long and frigid. It's funny to me when people say, "oh I'm from the Midwest. I know how cold it is." But Milwaukee and Detroit and Chicago can't hold a candle to the kind of winter I knew. Did school get cancelled because it's so cold that the busses and cars won't start? Has your camera ever froze mid shutter trying to take a picture of the bank clock that displayed a negative 25 below zero? This was the kind of cold I knew.
And so what was there to do? I drew. For hours. (And I liked to start fires with a magnifying glass, and a ray of perfectly placed sunshine. But that's a different story. However, I think that's why I'm so into pyrography now.) Anyways, my Mom said she would set me down with a pad of paper and markers and I was good for the day - drawing pages and pages of my own designer dresses and shoes. Princesses, purses, ducks, teddy bears, you know- the regular. Then there was the countless 'bus stop' series, as I was fascinated by the city and the diversity that it could hold.
I come from a creative family. My English grandma taught me to play piano. I read music, made up songs. In junior high I started playing cello. It is no surprise that music plays a big part in a lot of my work. My other grandma was full blooded Japanese, making my mom half and me a quarter. I was raised with Japanese art in our homes. I always loved the simplicity, the pattern, the movement, the effortless beauty. That grandma was a seamstress and made my wedding dress. My dad plays the piano as well, and my mom taught me how to draw and do crafts. My uncle paints and makes sculptures out of wood. My aunt is our family's Martha Stewart. My cousin is a photographer. My other cousins play guitar, violin, brass instruments, wind instruments—music is a love in my family. Creativity was always encouraged. It is in my blood.
When I was in high school, I I fell in love with Impressionism and Surrealism. I loved Degas, Van Gogh, Dali....As I grew oIder, I discovered so many more wonderful modern artists that continue to inspire me.
All of these influences culminate in my work. I am inspired by so many things -
people, beauty, nature, dreams, poetry, music, life.. . .
I liked art so much that I went to college and received a Bachelor's of Fine Art degree with a concentration in Drawing and Painting. Drawing and painting are still all I ever want to do, but now I've added the pyrographic element, which is what you see here. I hope you enjoy the work and the pieces that I will be adding on a regular basis as much as I enjoy making them!
