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During those waiting years, I was offered my first teaching position at a small private school in southern Louisiana, near where we were living at the time. I had hoped to teach art, but was invited to teach French instead, with the promise that if the first year went well, perhaps I could add in art later. Art was added to the curriculum the next year, and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching it. I took art courses at LSU in Baton Rouge, and SLU in Hammond, LA during the summers. In 1998 I was given the opportunity to teach solely in art at a school in Baton Rouge. Finally, around the turn of the new millennia, the conditions were right for taking my art seriously again. My home was larger, affording room for a studio area, and my children were old enough to not need my constant attentions. My first major project was to finish a highly detailed, photographic landscape that I had started eleven years earlier, at the end of my first university stint. With the new sense of self-respect I gained from finally finishing that painting, I launched into the start of an innovative series of wood panel paintings that I still continue today. Shortly thereafter, I left my teaching position to become a full-time art student at Southeastern Louisiana University.

It's a bit intimidating, at times, to read other artists' biographical pages and vitaes, including long lists of big art schools attended and overseas artistic studies. I consider my artistic journey less than aristocratic, but I'll share it with you. I knew quite early in life that I wanted to be an artist. My parents sent me to their church's college in California for my first degree. The few meager art classes offered there at least gave me a few paintings on the walls of my small apartment. I was about to register for an MFA program in another university in southern California when I found that I was expecting my first child. I was one year into my first marriage. Several years followed, with little art produced. My first husband got his Ph.D., I had two beautiful children. We lived in very small places, and I could not imagine trying to oil paint there with two young children running about. Serious art endeavors would have to wait.

My second university period was full of change and productivity. My troubled first marriage ended, and I started a new life on my own, intent on becoming a "real" artist--a professional. One of the bright spots in this turbulent time was my part-time job at the university, working as slide librarian for the main art historian.

Somewhere in the middle of that university and job experience, I found my own mental place in art history. I took in all that I could of the past, analyzed the current, and theorized the future. I figured that my tendencies towards realism would serve me well, since realism seems to be arriving on the cutting edge once again--the avant-garde. The key will be in keeping my version of realism fresh and relevant.

At the end of my second degree, my professors sometimes commented that my art lacked "angst." Peace was more than ever a precious commodity for me, and my art reflected that longing. In the summer of 2003 I met my second husband and discovered the soulmate I thought didn't exist. While his career as a US Marine brings us a good measure of both sacrifice and adventure, his presence in my life continues to add a deep sense of peace that surfaces in my art.

Thank you for taking interest in my life and my work. I hope that it leaves you with a fresh look at our world, and that you'll visit again for updates.