Question 1

Did you always want to be an artist?

Accepted Answer

My career as an art teacher and illustrator began at an early age.

I loved coloring books, paper, paint, looking at objects and drawing them over and over. So, yes, I discovered that I could look at something and draw that object with clear distinction.
 
I knew that I had something inside me that wanted to draw. I went to a parochial school and I remember my third-grade nun, Sister Hilda. The class was learning about countries around the world, and our teacher had the students draw houses, or symbols from a country that we had discussed. Our class was dismissed for recess. Sister Hilda noticed me still busy. I was diligently working on a pagoda (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pagoda)as seen in our Japanese study. She looked at my picture and immediately ran to pull another nun into the room to look at my drawing. I wish I still had that picture. It's in my DNA.
 
After I retired my artwork is watercolor; my true love. My home art studio is my happy haven.

Question 2

What is your background?

Accepted Answer

By middle school, if there was an art class to take, I took every class that I could and found that this was my "thing". Math? Not so much.
 
By college, I knew what my major would be. There was a community college that had a Graphic Arts program and I completed that two-year degree then decided to go on to a four-year insitution with a major in Fine Arts and a minor in education.
 
The natural course led me to a job as an elementary art teacher in my hometown. I taught there for four years. Later, after several summers as a crafts school instructor in Maine, I was hired as an elementary teacher in that state. With another colleague, hired at the same time, we were responsible for writing the curriculum for the art program. This was an exciting time in my background, as I taught in three schools: grades K through 6, and averaged about one thousand students in a two week rotation. I loved it!