Starlight Turtle Painting

I create art for the simple reason that it makes me happy. Watching a piece come alive under my fingers gives me the patience to place beads one by one, day after day, into an artwork of my own creation. ​I use beads to express myself as I love the way they shine and change depending on the light, the type of bead and how you place them. They remind me of myself and of human nature. We also live, breathe and change, always dynamic, never static, glowing softly one minute, shining brightly the next. I place the beads in Apoxie Sculpt (Apoxie Sculpt is a waterproof, permanent epoxy-type modeling clay which once dry, does not allow for corrections) and I begin to write, knowing that as each bead is placed it will become an exploration of myself, of materials and techniques and of what together we are able to learn, achieve and share. My artistic journey is not a steady progression. As a child I drew, but like many children I packed away my supplies at an early age. The reunification with my childhood possessions after an absence of many years made me realize that I should never have stopped. Thus, as an adult, I recommenced my artistic journey, setting out to teach myself all that I had missed in the intervening years. It is a long artistic road, because unlike a fine wine or cheese, my artistic skills did not mature with the passage of time. Instead I started right where I left it, with the drawing skills of an eleven year old child. I am, and always have been, a sensitive person. I become overwhelmed by sights, sounds, movement and emotions. Life and living is busy and, for many years, I often felt alienated from the world around me by my own limitations. While teaching myself art, I discovered a time and space where I could go and reflect on this world and my place within it. By exploring my life through the medium of beads, I began to understand myself better, to understand others better and to find peace with the person I am. My art made me feel less alone. Every artwork I create comes with a story. Each story reveals something about myself: a memory, an idea, a thought or an emotion. These stories are a journal of explorations, travel, friends and family, of events small and large, of emotions sad and wonderful, of my life. Initially I created these stories for myself. Yet as I began to share these stories with others around me I learnt that experiences are shared, emotions are shared, life is shared and that others see themselves in my stories.