"Sea Onyx" Original Acrylic Painting of a Sea Horse  9" x 12"

How I Came to Find My Artist Side...Again

I started drawing and painting at a young age, and by the time I was a teenager, my hobby had grown into a passion. I painted almost every day through my early 20s, focusing on watercolor portraits.  Then, life took a turn. I fell in love, moved to New York, and went to work for renowned book publisher Simon & Schuster. Life in New York City left little time for art, but I still told people I was an artist. Knowing this, an editor friend asked me if I would like to design a cover for one of her authors’ novels. I read the manuscript and absolutely  loved the book—I thought surely, I could create something for it. But the idea never made it to canvas. Convinced I was a fraud, I boxed up my paints and didn’t touch them again.

Soon after, my husband got a job in Tallahassee, Florida, and I gave birth to our twins. We were so blessed, and so busy. Art became something I did only with my children, drawing sidewalk-chalk trucks for Jarod or entertaining Erin’s love of flowers and butterflies.  When the twins went to college in 2016, I was supposed to start painting again.  I got a cat, instead.  Then 2020 brought COVID-19, and little did I know, it was pandemic frustration that would finally have me rummaging through the basement in search of paints and canvases. 

But what to paint?  I missed seeing people, but I didn’t want to paint them. Paint the cat? No.  How many paintings can one call Cat in Repose, anyway?  The solution was to play, and discover the possibility of abstracts. I started shoving colors together, not so much to reteach myself, but to see if the medium (acrylics) and style called to me. I wasn’t impressed with my work, but I was having fun.  I wanted to keep going.

One day, while browsing the art side of YouTube, I stumbled across an acrylic pouring video.  The interacting colors mesmerized me, but the technique seemed much too wasteful, and I felt the finished products too similar. I wanted my colors to move like that, to be fluid and vibrant and limber, but I didn’t want to pour half my paint down the drain.  I decided to mix my acrylics with the pouring medium, then swept the mélange of premixed colors onto the canvas and let the colors guide me. Veering from the traditional brushes, I spread my colors with a palette knife and blew them into shapes with a straw. I started painting every day, loving each new piece more than the last. I began to share my works on my Facebook page, and the positive response was empowering. 

In August 2020, my husband retired after 20 years as a news anchor in Lexington, Kentucky and we moved to Southwest Florida. Once we were settled, I had the time to just paint. Since then, I’ve participated in local showcases—where I have received glowing feedback, especially on my vivid colors—and sold several paintings. I currently have works at the COCO Gallery in Estero, Florida. With this validation to fuel my passion, I’ve finally made a permanent return to the world of art, and it feels like coming home.