My Artsy Friends

Just a few of the many talented people I've had the pleasure to know...as soon as I can upgrade to a larger website, I will add pages of their artwork.

I met Katherine Davis when we were classmates in Painting I at NAU. Her abstracted floral triptychs are absolutely beautiful!

Soon after I moved to Flagstaff, David and I met online and discovered we shared many common interests - including a love of photography. He's a good friend even though we don't stay in constant contact - I can call on him for anything if the need arises or just to chat and he's always happy to hear from me. David uses a digital camera to capture his unique view of the world and has also been instrumental in providing many of the quality images of my artwork.

Ben Murphy and I shared two classes together: Drawing I at the very beginning of our college careers and I-STEP (teacher ed) near the end. In between we often bumped into each other on campus and shared lively conversations ranging from art techniques to philosophies of life and the quality of education at NAU. I look forward to posting some of his ceramics here.

I met Thomas Blackshear when I was drawing portraits at Six Flags Over Georgia back in the '70s...even as a teenager his talent was brilliant. At the end of that first summer I had a party at my parents' house, and Thomas was one of my guests. He brought with him some slides of his work: small clay figures, incredibly detailed. I remember one piece he did of King Kong's hand clenching Faye Ray. The expression on that tiny face was so beautifully crafted, I could actually hear her screaming! I told him how much I admired his talent...his response was "You can do it, too, if you just try!"

In the early '90s Thomas was a guest on the local noon news show in Atlanta. He had just finished a series of paintings he did for the United States Post Office African American postage stamps. I called him to say how happy and proud I was that he "made it" in the art world, how I was "just" a housewife then and had done nothing to speak of with my art other than paste-up for graphics companies. He told me that I was doing the most important job anyone has - raising my children - and that graphics is a special talent as well. In other words, in his eyes, I had also "made it" in this world, in very important ways. Again he was saying, "You CAN do it!"

Our association was brief, but Thomas touched my life in a very significant way...many times his words have haunted and inspired me. Whenever I'm feeling down or when I've just been too lazy to do anything creative, I hear his voice urging me on. And I strive to pass those same words of encouragement to others in my life: You can do it, too, if you just try.

Please visit The Blackshear Gallery.

You can also view the Ebony Visions piece my parents gave me for my graduation gift. (Use your browser's "back" button to return to this page.)

My Brother

Viewed as a mediocre artist, amateur photographer, impassioned-but-not-great musician and all-around "failure" in the corporate world's version of success, my brother personified the most important of human virtues: Compassion. We lost him all too soon at the turn of the 21st Century, but he lives on as a Guardian Angel for us all.