It all started with a dream.
Okay, there's more to this - as there usually is with all good stories. I was a creative kid -truly obsessed with color, pattern, music, and the brands of my youth (hello 80s and 90s) that seemed to bring it all together.
Fast forward over a youth filled with bad fashion choices and questionable decisions and
I found myself majoring in studio art as a means to a graphic design degree. I wasn't a good artist. I had the beginnings of what could become something, but I lacked the confidence and the comittment. Plus, I thought I would never make a dime - which didn't fit with my big city dreams. So, off to design school I went! Once I was at Atlanta's Portfolio Center (now Miami Ad School) I knew I'd found "my people". All of my childhood predilictions made sense. I went on to intern in NYC at the acclaimed Pentagram Design, started my design career in Atlanta, started a design business of my own, and a family. Painting was a distant memory.
We now live in Beaufort, South Carolina - right on the coast between Charleston and Savannah. The marsh is the backdrop of my daily life now and it's almost impossible not to paint its ever-changing colors.
But about that dream...
I hadn't painted in a long time. Years and years. I always thought "I am not good enough/lucky enough/naturally talented enough/etc. to be a "real artist". Then, the night before my 40th birthday (which happened to be New Year's Day) and during a particularly trying time in my life - I woke up from one of those dreams you only get a few of in a lifetime. I was painting a large painting of flowers and it was blissful, magical, and comforting. I didn't want to wake up from the feeling. I picked up the paint brush the next day and haven't stopped since. Almost 4 years later (aging myself here) I often tell people my 8 year old self thanks me everyday.