From an early age, I’ve loved to draw and paint. An early memory: I’m sitting on the floor of our kitchen, collecting my finger paints from the bottom drawer of a cabinet. I pause and look into the future, wondering what it will be like to be 16 years old, and then older, and my mind throws itself forward in such a way that even today, I can go back and be that child sitting in front of the drawer.
In grade school, I proudly showed my art teacher, Mrs. Zigler, a drawing I’d completed of a group portrait of some musicians that I loved. Her response was to draw all over it and tell me I didn’t have enough experience yet to draw portraits. That her class at the Art Institute of Chicago had JUST begun studying portrait drawing. I was chastened. From then on, although art classes called to me (and I did try one in high school and one in college) it was frustrating to see everyone else so far ahead of me. So, I stuck to academics and did very well.
After college, I moved from Minneapolis to Boston and discovered the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Again, I plunged in with passion and excitement. It was so wonderful to be drawing and gaining excellent critical guidance from amazing teachers. But life is complicated and bills must be paid. I found public relations to be a very creative profession, and that part of my brain has had a lot of exercise.
So what does all of this have to do with St. Barth? In 2006 my husband took me to the Caribbean for the first time in my life. We had traveled all through the world, but that island for some reason claimed our hearts. We began spending winters living simply on that little island with our dogs and cat and learning to turn down the tempo of our lives to simplicity, surrounded by indescribable beauty. It was while on St. Barth that I really began pursuing my creative passions, drawing and painting. During that time I also founded my own PR agency, which again claimed more and more time, and interrupted many creative projects.
Still, by 2013 when we spent our last winter there, technology was so far advanced that i was using my iphone more and more to capture images instead of sitting for hours contemplating and working en plein air. And so the creative work shifted again to the side…a passion on hold, burning like little coals in the background of my life. St. Barth had given me permission in so many ways to live, explore, love, enjoy, and embrace beauty. Like no where else in my life, and like no other time, my soul emerged. Still, I move slowly, in fits and starts.