As a child, I loved gazing at the clouds in the sky, noting their different shapes and the shades of blue behind them. I saw God’s work everywhere around me, from the sky and trees, to the scenes of people laughing and talking in my hometown of Joplin, Missouri. Soon I found that drawing what I saw—be it with watercolor paints, crayons, or pastel chalks made me happy.

My parents sent me to the nearby Spiva Center for the Arts, where I marveled at the work of local artists. The classes nurtured my passion for art and expanded my visual vocabulary. Soon I was taking private lessons, and by high school, I was selling my work to other students and donating my art for the benefit of charity.

At the University of Arkansas, where I embarked upon a fine art major, I was introduced to oil painting in the studio. It was love at first sight and smell! Although I learned to use other mediums, oils were my passion. I was blessed with a professor who loved the Old Masters’ style of painting. It was a wonderful way to learn the roots of the masters of art, and how they treated canvases and even made their own pigments.