"My artwork reveals those things closest to my heart. Creativity is the key to the most joyful experience I've ever known: rendering on paper images of the places and people God has sent into my life. When you view my art, you view the things that have touched me the most!

Drawing was my joy even as a child, when I filled notebooks with drawings of horses. It became the passion of a lifetime in college, when during my junior year I found myself in classes on printmaking, drawing, painting, and art history. At the same time I was working part-time in my friend Ann Cockerill's gallery/frame shop and was exposed to all kinds of art... then I found out about Prismacolor colored pencils! That changed everything ~ being able to put color to the sketches I loved to do made me realize I wanted to be a professional artist.

After graduation in 1979 I married my handsome high school sweetheart and continued to work at the gallery until our son was born in 1983. My husband and I had always agreed that it was important for me to stay home once our family was beginning so I could take care of them myself, so when our son (and later in 1988 a daughter) came along, being a Mom became my priority. So for all these years its been wonderful to be able to have a studio at home and work on drawing projects when I have the time. Now our children are 19 and 14, and both enjoy drawing just as I did when I was young!"

"I first found out about Stevie Ray in the summer of 1990; I was going through a terrible time both emotionally and artistically, and had come to the point where I didn't have the strength to go on. Through a series of remarkable circumstances, God sent me to blues music and it was through it I began to find my way out of the dark. Eric Clapton was the one whose music started the healing; after I saw him perform in Atlanta during the 'Journeyman' tour, I began listening to him a lot and I learned that music and art are a gift given to some by which we can express ourselves and find healing, rejuvenation and true joy. When I read how much he admired Stevie Ray Vaughan and so I knew I wanted to learn more about who he was and his music.... then in August, he was gone.  

My heart told me I'd just witnessed a genuine tragedy. To have just gotten clean and sober only a short time before, and to have been playing better than he ever had, then to be taken away... I was shocked. But through it all, God kept telling me that what I needed to do was pay real close attention to Stevie Ray's music because he was someone whose example I needed to follow in his unwavering dedication to creating, how he expressed what was in his heart, his determination to do it his way and his refusal to compromise by following popular trends in the music world. And even in Stevie's sudden death, I needed to realize that we never know how long we have on this planet and we shouldn't waste a single minute.

The very first album I bought was  "Family Style"... to put it mildly, those brothers shook me to the core! I was inspired by their talent but in the case of the Vaughan brothers I was amazed to find such exuberance, sheer energy & a sense of fun on their album. I began collecting other recordings by Stevie Ray.

Since then, I've found more happiness in the studio than I ever knew possible. I've learned to tune in to what inspires me, and to follow those artistic urges as far as they take me. In the art world, I often find myself under pressure to draw subjects that the art world says is popular, to use colors the decorators say are 'cool' and to conform to what other popular artists say is the right way to create. But I know clearly what it is that I am inspired to do, and have refused to compromise in either style or subject. It is Stevie Ray Vaughan who has consistently encouraged me to stay true to my muse, and to this day all I have to do is listen to his music and I feel like I can fly! I look forward to the day when in the hereafter I can see him for the first time, and give him a big ole hug in gratitude for the blessings he has given to me."

"For centuries, the traditional way to learn to paint was to copy 'the masters' often exhibited at public museums - going there and setting up one's easel, palette and paints and proceeding to learn technique by duplicating what another artist did. The painting my angel comes from was painted in the 1400's by Rosso Fiorentino so I did copy one of the masters paintings in a way; I just gave it a twist by using colored pencils, not paint. And, I gave it a visual tweak by replacing the sweet little angel's instrument with a more modern one: a guitar, and not just any ole guitar: Stevie Ray Vaughan's!! I like the idea that somewhere in heaven there's an angel who just can't wait to get his hands on an electric guitar after having that little 'acoustic' all these years. And of course since Stevie literally is in heaven now, its fun to think he might be sharing riffs with some of the other heavenly host.

I had such a good time working on this drawing; it was nothing but joy from start to finish. And the reaction I get to it is always amazing - angel aficionados like the angel, guitar fans are astonished that I not only replaced the original instrument but put in an electric guitar, and of course
Stevie Ray fans get the connotation of heaven and angels.

Its my tip-of-the hat to traditional art as well as my favorite guitarist &
muse..."