Connect What is your favorite type of art to create?

Currently, I am working on a Pysanky twist on eggs utilizing henna dyes from Ukraine with Chinese Inks. I enjoy delicate yet deliberate tiny strokes highlighting small details on my Venetian type masks being half human and half birds. It can be very complex yet the results are settling on the eye. I paint primarily with watercolors and Chinese inks on everything but canvas. When painting on paper, I use my homemade paper and everything is inclusive of glass, tiles, terracotta, wood, and now eggs

Where do you find inspiration?

My inspiration started very young in just watching my father restore paintings from the Gilcrease, Philbrook, Kansas City, and Dallas Museums of Art. He could take pieces of canvas , paint, and hot wax and renew a painting to its original beauty. He was a very harsh critic of art and I continued to try and draw to find harsh criticism. I completely quit all art until he passed and started seeking my own approval instead of anyone else’s. Now being retired…at 65, life’s beauty is my inspiration.

What would you do with $25,000?

I would use the entirety of the money to help my son, now 17, in going to college. We received Landon at birth when his parents were incarcerated, mother pregnant, and brought him home following his 2nd day of birth. We found that he was high functioning autistic at 2 years old and have used everything we could for his therapy. He is now 17, very much into creating his own styles of music and wants to be able to make music his profession. My life is about helping this young man to survive.