Like many other artists, I knew that I wanted to be an artist from the time I was a very little girl. In grade school, my drawing and painting was encouraged by teachersand I even won an art contest that allowed me a week in an art camp.
I pursued my art dream in high school and argued with my parents about continuing on to art school. Mom and Dad were concerned that it would be very difficult to make a living in art…they were right. Although they were both artistic, they were hard working, successful immigrants from Hungry and were practical. My mother used to tell me that if I became an artist,"I would live in a cold water flat and have to live on beans." I didn't listen.
My high school was small and I had not faced much artistic competition. I won all the art contests and classmates indicated that I was THE artist of the school, but I knew I had lots to learn. Right after graduation I spent a summer at The Chicago Academy of Art, then on to University of Illinois. My majors, yes I had two of them, were painting and advertising design. My councilor and mother felt that advertising design might be helpful in finding a job, but my heart was always with the painters.
Fast forward, my first job leaving school was in the art department of a book publishing company . I drew fine lines around maps and drew little oil wells and hay stacks, etc on the maps. Next job was another publishing company were I could do some illustrations and was also the picture editor. I had married right out of school, and when I told the art director I was pregnant, I was fired.
Two daughters later, I continued painting but did not have a studio, so I set up everyday in the kitchen. When it was time to make dinner, I cleared away my paints. Years later, my second daughter told me whenever she smells turpentine, it reminds her of home.
After my third daughter was born, I went back to school with other "older" art students. When I divorced and became the sole support of three children, I was hoping to get my masters degree from the University of Illinois. I had recommendations and encouragement from my previous teachers, but at that time there were no day care facilities for single women. Heart broken, I studied Interior design and became the manager of the in-store promotions at three Ethan Allen furniture stores. My art background was helpful, but I could only paint on my days off. My painting "studio" became my bathroom.
My art was accepted in a couple of art galleries when I moved to Los Angles with my new husband and 3 children
In 1977, we moved to the Costa de Sol, Spain where I finally had a light filled studio and I spent the next 12 years painting and sketching jazz musicians. The fascination with jazz musicians was enhanced because I was able to experience their inside world. I traveled with my late husband, Kai Winding, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Winding, to concerts, international jazz festivals, recording studios, jazz clubs and meet socially with the greatest of jazz musicians.
Every summer I exhibited paintings in France at the Nice Jazz festival. Also I exhibited paintings in a gallery in Marbella, Spain and showed my work in jazz clubs in New York.
After the death of my husband, I moved back to Arizona and became active in the art scene. My work was quickly accepted in galleries in Scottsdale and Sedona.
Eventually, with a partner, I opened a large gallery in Scottsdale and was the president and art director. That job was a challenge and educational when I realized most of the artists we represented didn't know anything about marketing their art.
The artists inexperience encouraged my next step of creating a non-profit art marketing program that I continued when I left Arizona and moved to Ashland, OR. There I opened another art gallery.
In 2004, I moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where I have been showing my work in galleries, teaching the encaustic technique and receiving art tours in my home and studio. San Miguel is an artists dream: youtu.be/nvUinNihSXs
I believe that a successful career in art is having a strong desire to create, keeping a clear picture of what you want to create and sharing from the heart and soul. When it comes to my studio work, my artwork is a personal expression of my intuition and interest in pushing the techniques of my materials, mostly encaustic; mixed media in the last 24 years.
I strive to make art that touches people's hearts, either abstract or figurative and has spiritual meaning for me. Though my art, I hope to connect with others with the beauty of harmony, color, form and energy. These principles are the same whether I am making figurative or abstract, encaustic, oil or mixed media paintings.
If you feel a connection to my work and thoughts, I believe you will connect with my art. I invite you to visit the links on my sign up page, that follows this page, subscribe to my monthly newsletter and discover more about my life in art.
Would you like to become one of my art collectors? Choosing art is like choosing a friend. You want to enjoy the energy of it and become inspired by it.
Fine art is not exclusively available for the rich. I offer monthly, interest free payments, and I have not raised my prices in several years. Living with art will enrich your life and home. See the How To Buy Paintings which is under the sign up page.