My love for art began more than 5 decades ago. As I child, I was given a Kodak Brownie camera and began discovering the world. As a result of that gift and the influence of an artist mother, I became an artist and later an art teacher. A rewarding 25 years were spent mentoring and guiding high school and college students in the visual arts.
While working as a teacher, I focused my personal art on papermaking and multimedia collage. As a result of my own classroom needs as a teacher, I designed Deckle2-Go, a vastly superior long-lasting polycarbonate deckle box, frame, and mould for making sheets of paper.
Now, as a retired teacher, I am exploring ways of combining my love of the textures, colors and forms from the natural world into my collage images in papermaking to create works of art.
I use art as therapy, a respite from bouts of my own depression, and as a means of exploring how mental illness has affected my family. I have completed an exhibit of 30 works of art reflecting my insights, frustrations, growth as well as my solitude. This art can be found on my website- www.amothersjourney.net These things have given me a goal/mission to break the silence and stigma of mental illness in our world. It is my way of advocating for my son and others who suffer from paranoid schizophrenia.
My dream is be to have this exhibit travel around the country and speak about stigma, open conversations, and encourage people the importance of learning about and treating mental illness.