CALLA 6 - Limited Edition of 12 Photograph

I was born in Connecticut. I spent my childhood experiencing the joys of roaming a 100 acre homestead/farm settled in the 1700s. I spent much of my time exposed to wildlife, plants, and the life of domestic animals. Always interested in capturing images, I took all art classes possible in high school and was admitted early to Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, Connecticut. After graduation, I taught art in Enfield, Ct schools saving up to go to graduate school. While there I created a “growth series” that I exhibited in the surrounding cities. These were acrylic and sometimes experimenting with canvas on canvas texture. I moved to Rochester, NY in 1972. There I earned my MFA in painting, minoring in ceramics from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1973. In Rochester, I rented painting in the RIT offices, and painted a huge mural for the Hilton Inn on the Campus in Rochester. I I painted, taught at community colleges part time and raised 2 children from 1978 until 1990. My family was moved from Rochester, NY; to Pittsburgh, PA in 1985, where I created a “Reflection Series” and ”Prisoner of Man Series”. Just after I was accepted into the Pittsburgh Society of Artists, my husband was transferred once again to Highlands Ranch, Colorado in 1988. In Colorado, I continued working on her “Prisoners of Man” series and was hired at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, as adjunct faculty teaching figure drawing, design and perspective. I loved living close to the Rockies and was inspired by the wild life and wilderness even though she was living in a new suburb of Denver. Teaching on the college level was just what she wanted to do. BUT, I was up-rooted again, finally going to Rancho Cucamonga, CA in 1990. There, I found it impossible to find a college teaching position in short notice so I was forced to teach art in high schools in the area. The California economy required that I work full time. I expanded from teaching art to teaching desktop publishing and digital imaging as well as computer technology. Working full-time and eventually raising two children alone, left little time and energy for my painting but with new skills in digital imaging, I was able to continue the “Prisoners of Man” series using images I took while fishing and traveling. Man’s encroachment on wild lands was felt even more dramatically in California. Retiring in 2017 after 26 years of teaching, I was finally free to work full time on my artwork.