About Me...

I am starting this website as a way to keep myself committed to learning and growing in the arts. I am a beginner, a total novice. I make no claims to artistic talent or ability. I once read that in order to play an instrument well, you need to practice at least 10,000 hours. Well, in that same vein, I will need to practice at least as many hours to become skilled with whatever I wish to create. I am hoping this site will keep me accountable to the promise I've made to myself to become more educated, proficient and authentic in the way of creating.

Before graduating college (UNC -Greensboro '99) with a BA in Political Science, I enrolled in a Clay Modeling class as an elective. I fell in love. I was in love with the studio, the clay, the act of creating and using parts of my mind and soul that I never knew were within. But, I was a senior and if I wanted to study Art, I would be years away from graduation rather than months. Because I was spending so much time in the studio, I was not attending to my other classes and sadly, I needed to drop out of that class. I graduated shortly after, moved to Maine with my now husband and well... life just sort of got in the way.

I've lived in Maine for over 20 years now. I've worked as an insurance agent, as a licensing administrator for the City of Portland, as a pre-school teacher, and as a shipping manager for my husband's business. All of which I have loved but never felt they were my life's true passion.

I've also spent most of this time being a mom, utilizing my creativity with my two daughters and trying to learn as many crafts and art styles as I could along the way. These times spent creating with my girls and for them have been some of the greatest pleasures in my life. My girls are both gifted in the arts (way better than me!) and I'd like to think that some of my love for art has rubbed off on them.

I've taken classes at Maine College of Art and through Adult Education Classes offered locally, taught by local artists and craftspeople. I have borrowed stacks upon stacks of art books from local libraries. I've watched YouTube videos and scrolled for hours after hours on Pinterest. All of this learning took place in my spare time, because it felt too indulgent to pursue full time. After all, I have no formal training in the field and it felt like passion was not a good enough reason to step away from my day job.

So perhaps it's a mid-life awakening (nope not a crisis! haha), perhaps it's because my oldest will soon have college on her horizon, or perhaps it's that the timing will never be quite right, and so it might as well be now. Whatever the reason, I am setting a goal to create something each day and hopefully more when time permits. I will not limit myself to one medium over time. Life is just too full of amazingly beautiful ways to express ourselves to commit to say only watercolor or only quilting.

~I want to know how to do it all~

I will post the latest creations when I can,  whether I like it or want to trash it. Because I am hoping to learn as much from the ones I want to trash as the ones I want to keep. At the very least, this site will serve as a log of my progress. I hope that my vulnerability of sharing this journey will not only serve to remind anyone who sees this (mostly myself) that it's ok to not be perfect and that learning can be messy, fun, scary and rewarding.

~Progress, not perfection~

~It's the journey, not the destination~