I can’t remember a time when I didn’t enjoy picking up a pencil to draw.  I saw what many people didn’t, or I saw it in a different way.  I looked at how the sky gave a different color in reflecting the white color of a flower.  I examined how the sun’s light hit the leaves of the trees, how the flowers seemed to smile as its rays touched their petals and made them glow, how the grasses almost reached the sky with their green colors in contrast.  

As a self-taught artist, I learned a bit more with every drawing or painting I completed.  Nature was my teacher as I saw, felt, and watched its splendor.  I loved how people reacted to what I had caught on paper, canvas, or even rocks -- whatever I had at the time to work with.  

I gave up my art for many years to raise my family, but at times would do a bit because of the drive to create.  My biggest backer was my sister.  She would tell me how she had told people she knew that she had a famous artist for a sister.  I would just laugh and say, “Well sis, maybe one day… maybe one day.”  She is the main reason I have gotten back into it now.  She was taken from me many years back and I can still hear her say, “Sissy, you have to get back into your art, people need to see it…”

I did a painting that now hangs in her honor, and from there I have not stopped doing my art.  Many people have seen her painting and told me it touched them very deeply and is so soothing to view.  I now pick up a pencil or brush and ask myself, “What can I create to bring a smile or touch a person’s soul now and in the future?”  I get just as excited when a person that has seen my art says, “That looks just like MY cat and those eyes just follow me.”  I too tear up when I have touched the very being of a person that has had me do a drawing or painting of their beloved pet, or when I do any piece that they can relate to.   This is what my art is all about, touching the soul.