My Story

Hey everyone! I’m so glad you have come to visit my webpage. Let me share a little about myself.

I am a mother, grandmother, Science teacher —-and a self-taught artist. Since 1999, I have been relegated to doing it all as a paraplegic in a power wheelchair with only the use of my arms and just a thumb and two fingers on my right hand. Imagine this disability as waking up every morning to a six foot brick wall blocking you from getting out of bed. The bricks in my wall include my constant physical limitations accompanied with a heavy dose of chronic pain — everywhere. Factor in a daily battle with keeping negative emotions in check: depression, grief and anger, and top it all off with financial worries — because being handicapped is not without cost. I have a great big ‘wall’. The challenge I face everyday is . . . do I allow this wall of negativity to block me from what I want to do . . . or can I find a way to get around it? Some days it’s tough, but others I knock it down or bust through.

How do I do that? I have found that a way to keep the negative burdens at bay is to be productive. Do something constructive. So I paint. Painting is a creative release and provides a counterbalance to the heavy stuff trying to drag me down. Painting gives me a modicum of control over one aspect of my life where I have had to give up so much in others. Painting lets me travel with my imagination to my favorite places.

I like to try my hand at different styles of oil painting, but one I enjoy the most is landscapes. I love to show the constantly evolving and changing dynamics in nature, the seasons, the clouds, the waves, the storms; how they are in constant motion, always beginning and ending simultaneously. Our lives are in a similar state of change and evolution as we redefine our form or place in the world.

I wish you peace and happiness.