ARTresa

I was born on Island of Vinalhaven , Maine, USA, in my grandmother's house on Indian Creek in 1964.

I started drawing when I was two years old. Let me tell you the story of that.

I came up to see what my mum and brother were doing, and he said "Go away, you're too little to draw." And I sat down and grabbed a crayon and drew a really crude, but recognizable flower with a stem, leaves and petals. Then I stared at him with a "Take THAT!" stare, threw down the crayon and toddled off. (Mum said at that point, she knew I was the one who would take after her and draw.)

I kept on drawing after that, and never got tired of it. In my school years, there was no art program, so I am largely self taught. I never thought I could paint and use color, though, till I was looking at some paintings with a friend one day about four years ago, and I was saying, "You know, even I could paint better than that..." and she said, "Oh yeah? Prove it! Put your money where your mouth is."

And so I did. I bought a little box of water color, pencils and some paper and I started with that. I enjoyed learning about color so much I kept that up, too, and now I live to paint anything that catches my eye. I love it. I decided four years ago to really try and work at it. I had done other things for a vocation, but was never truly satisfied with any work till this.
It feels right to me in my bones to do this.