"Unhidden" Painting

I was born and raised in rural Illinois (USA) on a farm. Since I was age four, I had wanted to be an artist. Disney movies were a huge influence in that desire.
Being a young child in a rural area, there were not any opportunities to take art classes, nor was there any art offered in our small school. Even if there were opportunities to take painting and drawing classes, there was definitely no money for such frivolous things.
Finally in high school, an art class was offered, where I thrived. I started taking some night classes as well, but found them to be unchallenging.
I started teaching myself to paint at home with what little bit of knowledge I had. I would tear out pictures of animals from the National Geographic magazine and paint them. They were realistic renderings, which was ok, but I really wanted to learn how to abstract them and make them my own creation.
Six months after I graduated from high school, I moved 1000 miles away to Colorado and attended the Colorado Institute of Art. What an amazing, eye opening adventure that was! I was learning so much.
Through this school is where I met my mentor, Lee Milmon. What a brilliant, true to form teacher she was. She shared all of her education. She wanted you to succeed. It was so nice to be accepted as the artist you were, but always challenged to be better. I studied under her for several years.
I now take classes as often as I can, experiencing as many different teachers' styles, techniques, and mediums as possible. My latest muse is Emma Pettit. I absolutely love her technique and quirkiness. I have incorporated her teachings into my own style. I feel I have really found my own niche.
My latest series of Native American Women were really inspired by wanting to give them a voice and bring awareness to the numerous disappearances of indigenous women.
My new technique and color pallette have made my art sing and I have started incorporating it into creating abstracts and animals. My body of work now has a cohesiveness that was lacking in before.