It’s pre-9/11: One minute I’m on a tour bus with Willie Nelson who’s just finished telling a joke I immediately forget, (which, given the circumstances, is understandable.) The next minute I’m pregnant with my second child and the next minute, I’m 49 years old and holding a nursing diploma in my hands.
I am the quintessential late-bloomer artist. Having dismissed the adamant voices since I was a young teen encouraging me to chase a career in art, I instead chose to pursue a nearly twenty-year career in the music industry in Manhattan and then make a few revisions in my life from that point. Armed with my new RN license in 2015, I was abruptly met with a premature professional setback which drove me, fiercely, directly into a private world of painting; a response to the disappointment and disillusionment of that recently-chosen career path. I settled into my small studio directly on the edge of Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, New York where the massive windows there flood the studio with natural, reflected light off the lake.
Everything is a work in progress on many levels; my painting, my technique, my life, and now, my professional career as a nurse. I could never admit it before, but now I know that I should have begun painting 40 years ago. It has proven more fulfilling than I could have imagined.