Debra Foster

I have drawn since childhood. At age 12 I was offered a job to do one piece a month, but I turned it down to go on a bike ride. I wish my mother had prepared me for that meeting. I attended Ohio State University studying art and psychology. I had worked as a Psych Aid for 13 years at a mental hospital and had planned on going into art therapy. I completed 3 years at OSU and was to finish my degree at another college which had the course work I needed. The program was dropped so I went into photography following college. I then did several years teaching drivers education which gave me the freedom to babysit my grandchildren until they attended school. I then went into activities in an upscale retirement center where I also taught acrylic painting. I had an elderly woman who had never painted until my class. She fell in love with painting, had her children turn her spare bedroom into a studio and she painted every day and even sold some of her work. She was in her 90's when she began my class. My husband built me m own studio and I enjoy painting at least once a week I really prefer drawing in charcoal to painting.

Ohio State University