It has taken me until I am in my 40's to be able to say that. My mother was a fine artist and graphic artist. My stepfather is a nationally aclaimed air-brush artist that owned his own graphics art company and as a woodturner, he has pieces in the Smithsonian and as part of the White House's permanent collection (too cool). My father is an architect and abstract artist and my stepmother is an ink
and pencil artist. I've been surrounded by art my entire life. Having said that, my mom discouraged me from making art my work. She was often frustrated and too tired to work on her fine art after working all day on graphic art. My step father, to this day, tells all artist to keep their day job. I
took all of this advice to heart. I have been working in education for the past 20 years empowering students to become more through education. Not a bad job. But in 2009 with the Recession my position was cut and I was forced to really examine my life and what I wanted out of it. I did get another position at the college; however, I also decided to work hard to becoming a recognized artist and jewelry designer. I've been working hard towards that goal ever since. I have had 3 art shows -- 2 at Fremont Indian State Park and 1 an Anasazi State Park. I've been showcased in ELAN magazine and just recently won a finalist position in The Artist Magazine 29th Annual Art Competition. In addition to drawing and painting, I have several jewelry lines -- an Art Pendant line featuring Original Artwork & Photography of artisan, Vandy Moore -- that's me! I also have a line of Art Pendants featuring copyright-free images. In addition, I work with metal clay and produce Metal Clay Nature Sets -- these sets an exact replica of an actual item found in nature: an arrowhead, an acorn, a leaf, a feather, a walnut, etc. Finally, I make original one-of-kind jewelry sets featuring beautiful natural stone beads, swarovski crystals, metal beads, and metal clay in copper, bronze, and/or silver.
