Reenchanted Earth Art Studio

I have sketched ever since I can remember, but my mom didn’t officially recognize it until I turned nine. I happened to be sketching Snoopy when my mom caught me in the act. She was sure I was tracing him, so she made me redraw him in front of her. I did, and before I knew it I was whisked off to Aaron Bros. where I received my first set of oil pastels, pencils, and a sketch pad. I did pencil sketches for over twenty years before I ventured into color. Pencil sketching really helped me explore detail, contrasts and values, and it taught me how to loosen up my strokes while working. Oil pastels were always in the background, and for years I had a love/hate relationship with them. I loved the fact that I could draw with color, but I could never get them to work the way I saw the paintings in my head. I didn’t start working with color until after my divorce. All of my life I’ve seen colors swirling through faces and landscapes, and I was always accused of having an overactive imagination. Well, I was on my own now, and I didn’t care what others had to say about my imagination. I decided to let it finally express itself after reading one of Fritz Scholder’s comments. He said, “Learn all the rules, and then figure out which ones to break.” I was born and raised in San Diego, but I have lived all over the country including Florida, New York, Texas, New Mexico, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and now Western Colorado where I have lived for fifteen years with my dogs, cats, and boyfriend. All of my paintings are prayers. My adopted Unci (grandmother) on the Pine Ridge Reservation taught me to put prayers into every single bead of my beadwork. I do the same with every single stroke of my paintings. If I have to label them, I would call them Shamanic Art….