How long have you been creating and what is your preferred medium? I’ve been creating art for as long as I can remember. My earliest childhood memory happens to be of drawing on furniture. And I don’t even remember getting in trouble. What is your preferred medium? I still love drawing with pencil or conte crayon, as well as oil paint, mixed media and especially clay. In the digital world, I’ve recently been enjoying Procreate, but I finish everything in Illustrator or Photoshop.
What inspired you to create in the beginning? I don’t recall a pivotal moment when it began or what inspired me. I really think I was just born with that tendency. I was always inspired to be making things. I was, however, probably influenced by spending several years of my early childhood drawing pictures from my Dad’s Conan The Barbarian comic books. As a result, I realized from an early age that I was very good at drawing people and animals, and that I enjoyed it. This probably fueled my confidence and motivation to pursue a creative career.
What keeps you going? Yoga, meditation and this life-long desire that I’ve had to make marks and objects keep me going. Last year, at age 49, I decided to take a step away from corporate graphic design, into the world of surface design, which I’m still discovering. From where I stand now, I see a bridge into the fine art world. The idea of crossing back and forth, feels like integrating pure, meaningful, creative flow with sustainable commercial design at a massive scale, and that really motivates me. Not to mention I am obsessed with patterns, not just visual, but also creating intentional thought and behavioral patterns. Also, I started the Harmony Scribe brand because at the beginning of the pandemic, I had a vision about creating and spreading harmony instead of fear and uncertainty, and doing it visually, on a massive scale. That still seems relevant at the moment, and keeps me going.
What are three things you wish you had known starting out?
1. My ideas as a young person were just as valuable as the ideas of others who were older, more experienced, better dressed or in higher positions, even if they weren’t as conventional.
2. At a soul level, there is no hierarchy.
3. The winning lottery numbers.
What is your dream art project? Just one? One of my dreams from many years ago that keeps coming back is an installation. It’s a large scale, outdoor, public installation, made of beautiful, organic sculptural objects that you can walk through and also touch. The objects make lovely harmonic sounds when the wind blows through them, and some of them are suspended in air and move gently with the breeze.
What is the best advice you have received? I saw this on my friend’s refrigerator and it always stuck with me: “My Darling, try to be good. And when you can’t be good, be careful.”
What are you working on next?
On the business side, I’m working on my website. I’m adding blog articles to share more about each of the designs that I chose to make into products during the M:A class. I’m also working on launching my online store, with tea towels, aprons and pillow cases that are already produced and photographed, and I’m creating a couple pages about one-of-a-kind handmade ceramic objects that can be ordered. Next for me on the creative side, is to un-busy myself by completing these business goals and *not making any new ones* LOL, so I can focus on creating a new body of work this summer. One of the new things I’m creating is a mini collection based on my Limelight Hydrangea Harmony Pattern. This a pattern that I first drew on paper and have been carving into the surfaces of ceramic vessels.
