In the summer of 1992 my mom and I took a watercolor painting class at Drake High, my old school. I played around a little with painting small vases of flowers from life for a few months, but then hardly painted at all for nearly a decade. Life changes (divorce, living abroad, meeting and marrying my husband Joe) brought me to a more collected and creative place and by 2000 or so I began to paint again. I took a few workshops and adult education classes, one community college credit class on color theory – but no other art training. I decided that I was going to finish every painting I started – before beginning another – finding my way through all the parts that I struggled with and this has turned out to be the best way to learn. There is no substitute for putting brush to paint to paper, feeling the motions and seeing the results. I started small – a quarter sheet of watercolor paper – and quickly progressed to painting on full sheets. But, my painting time was quite sporadic – sometimes the work would lie untouched for months and months.