Thank you for visiting this site!
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I like sheets dried on the clothesline,
raspberry leaf tea,
long walks
bike rides,
the smell of sun-baked pine needles on Assateague Island,
gardening and taking care of animals,
fires in the fireplace,
rainy days,
hugs from my husband when he's covered in sawdust,
playing Sunshine Tigress with my children,
cooking, baking, reading,
birds (woodpeckers and owls especially),
and painting, of course,
And lots more, but that's enough of this list.
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The incredibly talented and generous watercolorist Carolyn Emerson introduced me to watercolors when I was nine and continued to teach me until I was eighteen. Her instruction makes up almost all of my art training. I find inspiration comes from spending time outside, admiring all the beauty there is to soak up, and from listening to the whisperings of my guardian angels. They give me good ideas.
I will always be grateful to my parents for the magical and loving childhood they provided me, and to have been lucky enough to grow up on a farm.
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Everyone is an artist if they are open to trying and practicing, doing it with the heart of a four-year-old in a sandbox, not a mean old curmudgeon who is rarely pleased. It is simply a matter of having the desire to train your mind and hands to see and translate, and not to be uptight while learning. It helps immeasurably if you have a loving and encouraging teacher and supportive family and friends. Criticism and limiting beliefs are the only things that stop creativity.
I wanted to make something more than a watercolor to hang on the wall, I wanted to make usable art, and that is how I came to designing fabrics and wallpapers.
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For years I sewed every fabric product on my great-great grandmother Emma's Singer Featherweight. Now I usually use a modern machine and occasionally hire out sewing. But I still use my great-grandmother Nancy's typewriter for quotes on note cards, and I iron on my great-grandmother Gladys's ironing board. I like using their old tools and feeling connected to my grandmothers. My husband and I print, cut and fold the note cards in our home. I prefer quality to quantity and speed, and want to be connected to the things I make and the people who choose to buy them.
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In the future, I hope to become a children's author and illustrator. At a certain age, I plan on dropping off the internet and leaving my smartphone behind, at which point I'm going to open letters while sitting on a stump down by the creek, and write letters while sitting by my kitchen window. I've got a big mailbox ready at the end of my driveway.
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Thank you to all the kind people who have supported my work!
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With Gratitude,
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Maria
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