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My first memory of art was at the age of four
when I made crepe paper flowers with my maternal Grandmother. She made
bouquets for wedding parties in a tiny rural community of Austria where
I was born. Later when my parents moved to Vienna I spent many solitary
hours playing with scraps of wood and cloth. Although there were no
fancy toys to play with, these simple objects wound up forming the
artistic spirit within me. My imagination was stretched and honed to
what later in life made me the artist that I now am.
When I attended grade school my drawings made it to
the head of the class on a regular basis. Once we moved to the United
States, I delved into making figures out of modeling clay for my third
grade “show and tell.” I vividly remember making tiny Disney characters
out of modeling clay. Because any small amount of heat made them sag, I
stored them in the freezer compartment of our little apartment’s
refrigerator. The compartment was about the size of a shoe box and I am
still amazed to this day that my Mom allowed it. Understandably, when I
started Junior High School, Art was still one of the subjects I enjoyed
the most. Later in High School my majors were split between Art and
Business Education. Once I graduated and found that my parents had
absolutely no interest in furthering my education by sending me to
college or a trade school, I went to work. Their feeling was that women
were meant to get pregnant and married and that education was wasted
girls. It was in High School that I was first introduced to working with
Ceramic Clay. Little did I know that this would become a major obsession
in years to come.
After High School, being a clerical drone did not
appeal to me and to my parents’ dismay I quit a dead end job at an
Insurance Company and put myself through art school by working nights
and attending Art school during the day. My parents felt that Art was
too much of a frivolous career to venture into. Why couldn’t I take up
accounting or get married and have a bundle of kids? But instead, I
completed my courses at the Colorado Institute of Art, feeling proud to
have done this on my own. Although, the education at the Institute
leaned toward Graphics, we were able to explore all sorts of mediums and
were given a weekly figure drawing; all of which helped me as a fine
artist.
My parents were right about one thing…Art was a
difficult career to break into. But accounting would have led me to
suicide. For several years I flip flopped back and forth from jobs in
the business world; even worked at local and federal government jobs,
but always returned to positions in the graphic field. Even in the
non-art jobs I held, my graphics education came into use time and time
again. I amazed even myself when I recently figured out that I have been
a professional artist for more than forty years.
There were times when I felt that I was more of a
technician rather than a real artist. I love challenges and began
painting oils that looked like watercolors and watercolors that looked
like oils. When someone made a statement that some kind of technique
could not be done, I set out to prove to myself that they were wrong and
succeeded many times.
Several years ago that clay addiction came
back to the surface. I started with Polymer clays and loved making
jewelry and Nativity sets with them. Later I ventured back into the real
thing; Ceramic Clay. I
swear, once you touch the clay you are doomed to forever want the feel
of it on your fingertips. And it got worse. Just recently I started
using Porcelain Clay and carved into it. I am hopelessly addicted now,
not only to clay but also the carving process.
As you can see by my website my ventures into all
the different mediums has been fun for me. I am forever grateful to a
school system that years ago allowed me the opportunity to become an
artist instead of pushing me into a sport slot where I would have failed
miserably. I may not be an artist with great fame or wealth but I feel
successful in the fact that I have enriched people’s lives with my work
through illustrations, rubber stamp designs, paintings, sculpture,
jewelry, ceramics and even some teaching. Since I am an award winning
artist whose work is in private collections all over the world I can't
say that I've done badly.
I have had several one artist shows in Colorado and
after moving to California, also exhibited in shows with other artists.
I have sold more works than I can recall; even won some awards and
acclaims. It has been a GREAT ride so far.
In spite of my
parents, I never married and live happily single with occasional
dalliances into romances with some silly men. Singleness allows me
to nurture my muses as they drive me on to create. I also opted for cats
instead of real children. They gave me a great deal of joy and became
models for many of my paintings. Click
her to see the "children".
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