After graduating from Winthrop College in 1964 with a B A degree in art education, I started the first art program in a rural county outside of Atlanta, Georgia. After 2 years, I left to spend a year in Europe where I saw much of the art I had studied to get my degree. Moving to New Jersey, I was hired in a Mental Health unit of a hospital for an art therapist type position. I quickly became very aware of how unspoken thoughts and feelings are communicated through art creations. This reiterated to me how personal creations can be expressed non verbally. After spending only one year in that area, my husband’s education took us to Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt Hospital hired me in their Research unit as a Diversional Therapist. This taught me how therapeutic arts and crafts can be for people striving to stay balanced during an illness. This is another way art fits into a person’s life. After a son was born in Nashville my husband’s education took us back to Atlanta, Georgia. I was asked to participate in a government study to prove or disapprove that succeeding in art class could influence success in other so called academic subjects .The six week classes with the students proved that this is a truth. Shortly after a daughter was born, I became a single mom. I accepted a job at a Mental Health Hospital as an Occupational Therapist. Again, this experience was helping me to understand the healing of power of the arts. After a few years at this facility, I was asked to interview for a position as a department head at a critical care hospital for children. I got the job at Egleston Hospital for Children which is the pediatric division of Emory Hospital. My job description was to normalize hospitalization for the patients and lessen their fears with education. I learned more about art and play from those patients that any other place.

I mention my children as part of my art journey because they prepared me to care for the patients in the Children’s hospital. I stayed 17 years at Egleston Hospital. The Low Country of South Carolina began calling for me to come home to my family. I moved to Charleston with my best friend who had become my husband in 1992. I taught art education in the public schools of Dorchester 2 for the next 12 years. My personal philosophy of art is that I hope to help people discover the creativity within themselves and cherish it as a gift to enjoy. I am so thankful that my gift is art. I am now retired and find great joy in painting the things in the Low Country that constantly call to me, “paint me”.

Read Less...