Artist Bio
I had always loved art, but in 12 years of attending a small rural school, there was only one art lesson. In my 6th grade class, we were asked to draw a picture from a photograph of railroad ties receding into the distance to show perspective. After college it seemed that life got in the way; marriage, children, divorce, and finding a full-time job. My mother had said many times that I could always be a teacher (she and her sisters and both her parents were teachers). Now I paid attention. I went back to school, got a Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and taught fifth and sixth grade for 24 years. My passion for photography began in 1986 after a motorcycle accident claimed the life of my son. I signed up for a class we had planned to take together. For 10 years nature photography was a hobby, but in 1995 I retired from teaching to begin my second career as a freelance writer/photographer. I wrote many articles for Oregon Coast magazine. My first national photo sales were to Outdoor Photographer magazine and the Inner Reflections calendar. I signed up with AGEfotostock, a photo stock agency in Barcelona, Spain, where my photos were sold in 36 countries. Eventually, I teamed up with another nature photographer and led workshops on the Oregon coast and scenic locations throughout the western United States. Years later with knee joints that needed replacement and time on my hands, I started playing with photos using various tools in Photoshop. Being innately curious, I tried many different filters and combinations of filters. The changes were small at first, but one success led to another. It was exciting to alter an image to the point of abstraction with no remnants of the original photograph visible. My reward was the sudden 'aha' experience Gestalt psychologists describe so well. Eventually, it hit me over the head. After all those years, I was creating art, but as they say, the excitement is in the journey, and after a brief respite, I was soon looking for another image to work on.