How I got here. I was born into a family rich in traditions of sewing, quilting and crafting. My maternal grandmother, Miriam, was a professional seamstress. I remember you could hardly see the machine in her sewing room amidst the stacks of fabrics left from client alterations. She never threw out even the smallest amount of fabric because “you never know when you might need it.”

From these remnants came clothes in miniature for all the 5¢ and 10¢ dolls she collected from garage sales and flea markets – just one of her hobbies. The polyester and other synthetic scraps often ended up in some version of a crazy quilt. They were not always the nicest to look at but they were made with a consciousness for recycling and love for her family. Miriam made sure all her kids could sew, including the boys. She felt it was a basic skill necessary to daily life and all of her children used that skill in one form or another.

My mom is a great crafter and seamstress in her own right. She spun from her mother’s teachings a talent for crocheting, knitting and needlepoint. She made a business of crafting painted wooden home accessories and even learned the arts of dyeing, felting and spinning from the wool of her pet sheep. She is a women of many talents (far too many to list here) which all started when her mother taught her to sew.

I benefited greatly from those skills which were passed from generation to generation. Initially, it meant I could have a Day-Glo purple bedroom complete with bedspread and curtains with appliquéd stars and moons or a Holly-Hobby dress with matching bonnet. Hey, I was four and it was the early 70’s!

My mom could make anything! At age four my imagination never exceeded my mother’s crafty limitations (if she had any limitations). By the time my feet could barely touch the power pedal of the sewing machine (propped up on a box) she was teaching me that I, too, could make anything.

My dad’s mother was a painter of ceramics. She began painting ceramic figurines of bunnies dressed up for Easter but soon her true talent for replicating wildlife emerged. She would study animals from photos, television shows and wildlife magazines, taking note of their unique coloring and markings so that her next lion cub or elephant would look more realistic. Through her painted world, my grandmother taught me to see all the details that are often taken for granted.

I was actively drawing and creating on a daily basis by the time I was a preteen. At that point I was fortunate enough to be taken under the wing of our neighbor who was a commercial illustrator. She saw potential in my sketches but I think most of all she saw an eager kid wanting to learn more. She taught me all about good composition and technique. I explored new mediums and soon I was creating stuff that moved from the front of the refrigerator to a frame.

Now I had a path. I was an artist. Every elective credit in school was art – printing, pottery, painting and eventually culminating with an independent study course in art, designed by my teachers.

I entered State University of New York (SUNY) and decided on liberal arts with a fine art emphasis. It was in the middle of printing class, among the banter that filled the room, that someone mentioned “starving” and “artist” in the same breath. Up until that point the thought had never really occurred to me. That small thought filled my mind and changed my path from artist to designer. After two years in fine art I transferred to the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) campus in New York City. The artist in me was being redefined as a graphic designer and marketer. Despite the shift in paths I was still within skill sets I knew instinctively … my comfort zones of fabric, sewing and creation. Three years later I received a BA in Advertising Design and Marketing. I was not going to be a “starving artist.”

I hit the streets of Madison Avenue and did some short stints at Young & Rubicam, Ammirati & Puris and Wunderman before finding a better fit within magazine publishing. Unlike the big firms at the time, publishing companies allowed me to work within, and eventually oversee, creative marketing departments. My teams and I were able to do everything within the creative process, not just one small aspect.

Eventually it led me to open my own small agency but despite my successes in marketing, I never completely fit into that commercial mold. So early on, I created a rather successful side business in decorative painting to fulfill the artist within.

Several years ago I left it all behind and moved to Mexico. I’ve been exploring various media, drawn initially back to the instructions of my professors, my commercial artist mentor and even farther back to my roots in fabrics. I’m back on a path I never completely stepped off. Only now, I’ve combined all my skills as a designer, illustrator, painter and sculptor with my first inherent skill – sewing.

Now, I love what I do.