First Blog

This is my first blog ever. I haven't felt confident enough yet that I could write anything interesting enough to feel it was worth it. Some people have told me to do it anyway so here goes...
I spend a lot of my time cleaning and caring for animals (chickens, rabbits, turkeys, goats...depending on the time) and children. When I'm lucky I get to write stories and poems and create artwork. Sometimes with children and sometimes by myself. I just love to draw and have since as far back as I can remember but now I also love to paint, sculpt and use other creative media as well. I went to college to get my BFA and certification to be an elementary school teacher. A few months after graduating way back in 2003 I got married to my highschool sweetheart and exactly a year after that we had our first baby, a girl. Less than two years later we had our boy and with one of each sex and a serious fear of how we'd be able to give them the childhood we wanted to, we were ready to stop having kids. My husband has been a chef since before we married and he and I have done some work together in the kitchen and in our family childcare in Portland, Oregon where we lived and worked when our kids were very young. While living in Portland we went often to the Saturday Market where we could surround ourselves with beautiful people, music and art for free on a regular basis.
For the past five years we've been living back in our homestate of Massachusetts where I am very lucky to get in some substitute teaching at the elementary school our children attend, mostly in the art room. I went there myself as a child as well although the building has changed. The regular art teacher there is very talented and has so many great lesson plans and art projects that I've been able to help teach. Each year, she sets up a beautiful display of the best art work for each student and I love being a part of the preparation for that and going with my children to the show night which also features student work from technology and music classes.
Fine Art America has been a great site for me to connect with a diversity of artists and get inspired and encouraged to keep creating. There are so many skilled people and incredible online art galleries to study and learn from here. Thanks for reading!