As I find a way to mention all too often, my parents are professional artists/musicians so art has been a lifetime thing by default. They found me a silversmithing apprenticeship when I was 14 and had me onstage singing songs I’d written the same year. I got serious about my music a few years back and started playing out a lot and then as my life circumstances changed and I needed to be at home more for my daughter and new husband (and keep regular person hours), I ramped up the jewelry and sewing (ekate designs).

I opened my gallery, Orchard Art House, in the fall of 2010. It was a reaction to my granny (and great friend) dying and that age old realization of the brevity of life; the seemingly obvious epiphany that nobody else is going to make my dreams come true and that, truly, clocks have wings.

The gallery is a mixture of selfishness and an attempt to be selfless, as most of my prayers and petitions are. I am surrounded by my favorite artists’ work every day and am blessed to experience that beauty free of charge. And the goal of the gallery is most definitely to connect my favorite artists with the right audience without taking a commission from their hard work. Because I grew up with parents who had to literally “sing for their supper," I am acutely aware of the monetary challenges involved in artistry as vocation. So far, the ekate jewelry sales have kept the doors open and the lights on!

GOLDEN RULE COLLECTIVE COMING APRIL 2015 to 350 WATER STREET in EXCELSIOR, MINNESOTA!