I grew up outside of Vancouver BC with a barn full of ponies, and later we moved back to Southern California. Everyone around me was in the medical field. Art was thought cute but not a good way to build a life.

Except. If that is who you are, what do you do?

I tried to be a nurse. I wanted to be a psychologist. I always had a creative side hustle. I started painting clothes, more to fill my closet than anything else. But my mother loved them and wore them on her travels. She got me boutiques. I painted on my days off from my pediatric critical care job. When the babies came, painting was paused. Instead, I cooked and gardened. Had to do something creative.

After my marriage melted down, I cried my way through an art class. I got inspired to try an art show. My second art show ever was in Palm Springs at Frances Stevens Park. Wearing my artist badge and commuting to “work” that weekend, I finally felt I was in my own skin. This was me. I did art shows for a few years with my painted garments, always a kid in tow.

I was diagnosed with head and neck cancer in 2018. My kids ran my life while I fought to survive surgery, radiation and the disease itself. I am cancer free. I even got a cure diagnosis from my surgeons. There is definitely collateral damage, and it does inform my art.

I find I am drawn to the imperfect. I want to see the hand of the human in the art. I have learned I can’t ruin my work, I just paint over. And that creates more magic! Am I like that? Are we like that? Do people see the story or the mess?

I love the left over marks that show through and shadows of prior shapes. There is a historical record now. The big picture is art from across the room, but up close, there is a whispered story. Like me. Like all of us.

As I accept my own scars and battles, I appreciate more and more the layered depth that a history of struggles, losses and wins, squirmishes, combats, and story upon story upon story gives us. I want my art to celebrate this —the patinas of our lives.

Yours.

Mine.

Tell me your story.