My home is in Kansas with beautiful sunrises and sunsets. On a clear night, we can see lots of stars, even though we live in town. Hutchinson is one of the bigger towns in central Kansas. Our home of almost 40 years is an old bungalow with a wonderful big front porch.
My family sparked my creativity. My grandpa Arch encouraged me to work at his tool bench and see what I could build. Grandma Elsie opened my eyes to the natural beauty of the world and taught me to use my imagination. Mom showed me I could create a beautiful life with my own hands. My dear dad was a dentist, and thankfully, I got to work in his office as an assistant several summers during high school and after graduation, because he passed early in life.
Later, I stayed home with our daughter until she was a teenager. I went on to attend junior college for my pre-classes before being accepted into hygiene school. I’ve really enjoyed my work as a dental hygienist. Over the years, I have cut back at work little by little, to have more time to myself to create art.
As a child, being creative allowed me to build self-esteem. I remember having one of my drawings reproduced on the front of our grade school newspaper, “The Morgan Star.” At home, my mother quilted, sewed, stripped paint off of furniture and made a pretty home. She taught me the skills that she used to make beautiful things. I learned very quickly that for me, happiness came from doing things by hand. Keeping our hands busy was something I learned in dark times, too. Creating has always been my saving grace.
I “make” because it gives me life. It calms me and gives me focus. When I make my art — chandeliers, collages, altered art and watercolors — I love to focus on the details, what is pleasing to me. I’m often overwhelmed by a color or a shape that just feels right. The world around us is filled with details, precious little miracles that mingle together to make this life full of wonder. These details and little things are what make my life so good and I hope to magnify them in my art.
Planning the papers and figuring out the shapes for more complex things takes lots of energy, but I enjoy it. I often make a huge mess when working on a project. I will leave the mess. In the morning, I put things away and clean up. The act of gathering papers, wiping down the work table, throwing away the odd bits of paper and snipped pieces of ribbon and little punched holes that accumulated gets me ready to start again.
I love to be in a pretty room, so I keep pretty bowls and trays filled with the things I’m using. My upstairs art room is most comfortable for me to work in because of the light, and I can see outside down into my little flower garden. I made chains of beads to hang in the windows. I made one and liked it so much, I decided to make another, which turned into another, and now my windows in the art room are filled. I recently made some for a friend as well. Over the years, I have found pieces of odd furniture with lots of drawers or shelves or boxes to store things in the room.
Notice the little details. Take time to look at and enjoy shadows, don’t be afraid to create.
I use my downstairs art room to hang the lampshades I find and to store tubs of papers, fabric and tools I use occasionally. There are boxes of beads, a box of small branches from a tree we lost, a box of bark, a bag of acorns and a shoe box filled with flat stones that eventually I will use to make something rustic. I have my wooden toy box full of broken blue-and-white dishes that I plan to use later and a box of rusted bottle lids I’ve picked up, which I’ll do something with eventually. My favorite item of all is an iPad painting by Carolyn Hall Young called “Terri in Wonderland.” Carolyn touched many people’s lives with her work as an artist, including creating personal iPad paintings for people she met through Facebook. This painting she sent one year on my birthday. The name she chose really surprised me, because she didn’t know that Alice in Wonderland was one of my favorite stories and movies. Receiving the painting was a wonderful surprise and delight!
“You need to be a bit crazy. Crazy is the price you pay for having an imagination. It’s your superpower. Tapping into the dream. It’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
— Ruth Ozeki
Either people like my chandeliers or they totally don’t. I get that, because I am picky about what I like. I keep making them. I often jump out of bed in the morning so I can go in the art room and see how things have dried and how the pieces fit. I want to put them together. Other times, I really struggle when I have to plan ahead. But once I find the solution, I’m right on track again. For the last two and a half years, I’ve written instructions for a manual on how to make a simple chandelier. I have tended to protect how I make my chandeliers, because it’s something I’ve developed myself and because it is so different. At the same time, as I kept making them more and more complex, I realized it would be fine to allow others into my brain to let them discover the fun for themselves.
I like to begin a new project before finishing the last. I usually have several projects going on at one time. There are so many steps involved in making a chandelier. There is usually something that needs to dry overnight. Then there is prepping the frame, making the parts and finding the pieces. I will then sew the fabric to a frame and put my feet up … I may throw some laundry in or fold some for a break. Sewing hand work or cutting out parts I can do with repetition, and it calms me. These are times my mind rests for the next big push.
In my memory, it was art that made me feel like I accomplished something to be proud of at school.
Many of the things I want out of life I already have: a great extended family, health, seeing our daughter marry a wonderful man, good friends and fun times together. When the chandelier manual is printed with photos in place, I plan to give classes on how to make them. I want to expand in creating different kinds of art. I love doing collage and altered books. I have found a wonderful watercolor teacher and have done some watercolor on a recent chandelier. I love to carve and print and have plans to do more carvings for printing my own papers. I have lots to learn and am enjoying it.
My home is in Kansas with beautiful sunrises and sunsets. On a clear night, we can see lots of stars, even though we live in town. Hutchinson is one of the bigger towns in central Kansas. Our home of almost 40 years is an old bungalow with a wonderful big front porch.
My family sparked my creativity. My grandpa Arch encouraged me to work at his tool bench and see what I could build. Grandma Elsie opened my eyes to the natural beauty of the world and taught me to use my imagination. Mom showed me I could create a beautiful life with my own hands. My dear dad was a dentist, and thankfully, I got to work in his office as an assistant several summers during high school and after graduation, because he passed early in life.
Later, I stayed home with our daughter until she was a teenager. I went on to attend junior college for my pre-classes before being accepted into hygiene school. I’ve really enjoyed my work as a dental hygienist. Over the years, I have cut back at work little by little, to have more time to myself to create art.
As a child, being creative allowed me to build self-esteem. I remember having one of my drawings reproduced on the front of our grade school newspaper, “The Morgan Star.” At home, my mother quilted, sewed, stripped paint off of furniture and made a pretty home. She taught me the skills that she used to make beautiful things. I learned very quickly that for me, happiness came from doing things by hand. Keeping our hands busy was something I learned in dark times, too. Creating has always been my saving grace.
I “make” because it gives me life. It calms me and gives me focus. When I make my art — chandeliers, collages, altered art and watercolors — I love to focus on the details, what is pleasing to me. I’m often overwhelmed by a color or a shape that just feels right. The world around us is filled with details, precious little miracles that mingle together to make this life full of wonder. These details and little things are what make my life so good and I hope to magnify them in my art.
Planning the papers and figuring out the shapes for more complex things takes lots of energy, but I enjoy it. I often make a huge mess when working on a project. I will leave the mess. In the morning, I put things away and clean up. The act of gathering papers, wiping down the work table, throwing away the odd bits of paper and snipped pieces of ribbon and little punched holes that accumulated gets me ready to start again.
I love to be in a pretty room, so I keep pretty bowls and trays filled with the things I’m using. My upstairs art room is most comfortable for me to work in because of the light, and I can see outside down into my little flower garden. I made chains of beads to hang in the windows. I made one and liked it so much, I decided to make another, which turned into another, and now my windows in the art room are filled. I recently made some for a friend as well. Over the years, I have found pieces of odd furniture with lots of drawers or shelves or boxes to store things in the room.
Notice the little details. Take time to look at and enjoy shadows, don’t be afraid to create.
I use my downstairs art room to hang the lampshades I find and to store tubs of papers, fabric and tools I use occasionally. There are boxes of beads, a box of small branches from a tree we lost, a box of bark, a bag of acorns and a shoe box filled with flat stones that eventually I will use to make something rustic. I have my wooden toy box full of broken blue-and-white dishes that I plan to use later and a box of rusted bottle lids I’ve picked up, which I’ll do something with eventually. My favorite item of all is an iPad painting by Carolyn Hall Young called “Terri in Wonderland.” Carolyn touched many people’s lives with her work as an artist, including creating personal iPad paintings for people she met through Facebook. This painting she sent one year on my birthday. The name she chose really surprised me, because she didn’t know that Alice in Wonderland was one of my favorite stories and movies. Receiving the painting was a wonderful surprise and delight!
“You need to be a bit crazy. Crazy is the price you pay for having an imagination. It’s your superpower. Tapping into the dream. It’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
— Ruth Ozeki
Either people like my chandeliers or they totally don’t. I get that, because I am picky about what I like. I keep making them. I often jump out of bed in the morning so I can go in the art room and see how things have dried and how the pieces fit. I want to put them together. Other times, I really struggle when I have to plan ahead. But once I find the solution, I’m right on track again. For the last two and a half years, I’ve written instructions for a manual on how to make a simple chandelier. I have tended to protect how I make my chandeliers, because it’s something I’ve developed myself and because it is so different. At the same time, as I kept making them more and more complex, I realized it would be fine to allow others into my brain to let them discover the fun for themselves.
I like to begin a new project before finishing the last. I usually have several projects going on at one time. There are so many steps involved in making a chandelier. There is usually something that needs to dry overnight. Then there is prepping the frame, making the parts and finding the pieces. I will then sew the fabric to a frame and put my feet up … I may throw some laundry in or fold some for a break. Sewing hand work or cutting out parts I can do with repetition, and it calms me. These are times my mind rests for the next big push.
In my memory, it was art that made me feel like I accomplished something to be proud of at school.
Many of the things I want out of life I already have: a great extended family, health, seeing our daughter marry a wonderful man, good friends and fun times together. When the chandelier manual is printed with photos in place, I plan to give classes on how to make them. I want to expand in creating different kinds of art. I love doing collage and altered books. I have found a wonderful watercolor teacher and have done some watercolor on a recent chandelier. I love to carve and print and have plans to do more carvings for printing my own papers. I have lots to learn and am enjoying it.
