How to Become an Artist without an Art Degree--Chapter 1 My Story

I first became interesting in "making" about the same time I was due to have my first child. Really bad timing in a way. Everyone knows that children take precedence over almost everything, especially as babies. But I had taken my first quilting class and I was hooked. Unfortunately I was not very successful with several of my beginning attempts. The teacher had taught basics choosing seven sisters as one of the first blocks! We were also piecing by hand and oh what a mess that was! I can laugh now that I am teaching the Hunter's Star . However I have Deb Tucker's ruler for accuracy. What a difference! I have come to enjoy making quilts of all kinds however, I eventually felt the need to try other things Fast forward 15 years and I was making quilts yet not feeling the same satisfaction. I tried rug hooking, weaving, and embroidery, painting, polymer clay, and free-motion machine embroidery. I have pretty much dropped the rug hooking and am considering trading those supplies with someone for a piece of art. The weaving stuff, I'll hang on to. I just have a table loom and it doesn't take up much real estate. I have started to put together the others into mixed media art quilts. After all of these experiences the painting bug is a strong pull. I am putting paint on my mixed media quilts now, but several years ago I was brave enough to take a painting class in a college setting. I LOVED it but eventually missed sewing. The painting above was done after the painting class. As fun as it is, I just didn't continue to paint in that fashion. Instead, I've been trying to integrate both painting and sewing.

This is one of my pieces that I feel was successful. It's called "Beginning Band" These are the instruments that I taught 5th and 6th graders during my music teaching career.