Like I said before, mid-western girl, summer of love.  
And before that, tropical climes, aquatic tendencies, etc.

I grew up on a beach, spent the majority of my childhood pickled and sunburned.  
But moved away immediately after high school suffering from grass-is-greener
syndrome.  The dangling carrot on the other side of the fence drew me across
Europe, from sensory overloading Italy to the brisk Arctic Circle.  I searched the 
spongy rainforests of the Pacific Northwest and the sandy beaches of Hawaii.  
I found tons of green grass, but the fence was always there, taunting me to 
come and see, come and see…

Through it all, art was a constant.  During high school I was into batik.  
Living on the streets in Italy lent itself well to collage.  I tried painting for the 
first time in Finland.  During art school I was beckoned by the siren song of 
macramé and paper maché.  Honk if you know where I'm coming from.  In Seattle 
I made puppets, New York – little hand sewn hippie dresses, Minnesota – 
big juicy quilts.  And in Hawaii, I had my soul altered, setting me up for 
the path Iım on now.  (Living as a performance artist.  My current piece is 
titled: Life In The Northern Plains In The Winter Time Laura Ingalls Style)

While art has been a constant and preferred creative outlet, I have also tried 
jazz dancing, which I don't include in the category of art because    
     youıd just have to see it to believe it... 
I was a soil scientist in college, a waitress after that, also a shoe seller, 
a barista, a landscaper, and a window dresser to name just a few bill paying 
endeavors.  And I simply love being an artist most of all.

So, here we are, I donıt know how it happened, but Iım back where I started, 
at the beach in a way (more or less near to it, rather) and Iıve turned to the page 
in the storybook where she lives happily ever after.  Not in the static 
bliss– everything stays perfectly the same forever and ever –way, because 
I change my mind radically sporadically.  And also not in the fairy tale sense 
where everything is pink and sparkly and draped with long flowy ribbons.  Itıs been 
a tougher road than one that is yellow and bricked.  But as with anything else, 
hard work can bring good things.  The uphill climb it took, makes being here 
(healthy happy and painting) a really lovely thing.

Thanks a lot for taking time to check these paintings out.  Hooray for water and sunshine!
Shannon