It breaks my heart to see vintage photos that aren’t wanted. They become family and friends. I started a degree in Fine Arts in 1973. Then life happened. I joined the Army, got married, and started having children. With my husband still in the Army, we moved constantly. I finally finished my degree though. Creating is my happy place. While moving around, I started making crafts that would easily m
ove with us. I went to craft shows and made some extra money and new friends. I didn’t miss my Fine Art. As years went by while I was still doing my crafts. I churned them out while improving my skills and found new and fun crafts to create. I was pleased with my progress, the compliments I received and the requests from people wanting me to teach them. I started selling them out of Great Owl Crafts. I started missing my Fine Art though. My career was a software developer and I enjoyed what I did. Several years ago, I started thinking of retirement. I wanted to get back to my roots and finally use my education. One morning I woke up, grabbed a dead laptop, and started working. I gutted it to get the weight down. Then I started taking off keys so that I could integrate a dragon peeking out. It delighted me. I created another, and another, and another. Each one started as a feeling but took a life of their own. I was emotionally attached to them. One day while looking at them together, I realized that they weren’t crafts, they were Fine Art. Why were they different? Because I wasn’t just “churning” out my designs. I was creating from my emotions. It made me feel something. When I started each item, I had no real idea of what it was going to be. It just became. I was emotionally expressing my dreams and desires of leaving computers and creating Fine Art. Each piece saw the sculpture emerging from laptops and keyboards. The creatures I was sculpting grew larger and larger, emerging further out of the computer piece. My final piece, “Flying Free” is when I realized that I had made the change. I was creating with my heart and soul instead of just my mind and hands. It was the start of my career in Fine Arts. I now work primarily with acrylic painting and multi-media. I find vintage photos of people that have been long forgotten. It breaks my heart to see them in thrift stores or tossed into the garbage. I give them a name and a new life. As I work on the paintings, they quickly become family and friends.
