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I wake up every morning after dreaming about it. I put new combinations together in my head, and I take in every aspect of color in my surroundings. Most people would say I answered the question wrong. The answer is supposed to be something like: “To Pursue a Life Goal.” “To Help Mankind.”…..you know real life challenges. But for me, it’s very simple. If I tell you color, then I can reach far back into any time in my life and tell you why I was doing what I was doing.
If you asked my mother she’d tell you I was wearing green pants with a pink and brown shirt all the way back to kindergarden! It has never occurred to me to match my clothing. You mean I can only wear two colors at a time? At an early age I also fell in love with crayons, paints, pencils, play dough, your average child’s fair. What is interesting is that my mother never let me have a coloring book. I first had to draw the pictures, then I got to color them in! I actually did this too! My bedrooms were always every color of the rainbow and as bold as the colors could come. I used to make my own paper dolls, and then I’d dress them in my own designs. I also always had to make my own cards: thank yous, holidays, birthdays I was my own hallmark industry! To this day I still make hand made cards. To me, it is easier to find the right words when you write them yourself. Many people have saved these cards; this has been a great way to artistically see how far I’ve come. What a hoot!
Later on in life, when I started to take art classes, my interests changed. I found it difficult as an artist trying to fit in, because I was not attracted to traditional media. I fell in love with quilting collages and folk art. To be honest, my quilting techniques were quite crude, but I was/am in love with combining different fabrics and patterns.
I went to The University of Connecticut and graduated Magna cum Laude with a degree in fashion design and merchandising. I loved it. However, upon graduation, I quickly realized that what I loved about it didn’t really apply to working in the industry. This was not a waste of an education, I promise! I left school with a solid foundation in economics, merchandising, and creativity. I did actually minor in art as well. I can tell you there was one class that had more impact on me than a whole four years of other classes combined. Guess what it was? Color theory. This class made me soooo excited! Some of the projects were:creating movement through only two colors, fooling the eye into seeing colors that weren’t there, creating paintings in colors totally opposite a traditional palette, and truly understanding terms such as compliment, adjacent, secondary, tints, shades, monochromatic… I could talk shop for hours! Let’s just say, “This class changed me.” [Top of page]
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My family has a picture framing business and art gallery. I naturally fell into a position there because it was so creative. I worked with art, color and high-end craftsmanship all day long. Here I learned attention to detail, how to work with people to create custom designs and of course I gained more technical knowledge of color! My favorite part of the job was helping customers to take more of a risk with color. When pictures are framed correctly they can last a lifetime. I also learned invaluable lessons on small business. In my free time I took to creating mosaics, decorating furniture, and even designing my own picture framing moulding. These projects were beginning to take up more and more of my time.
My life changed the day I picked up a bar of polymer clay. It truly changed. Polymer clay comes in dozens of wonderfully bright colors and on top of that, it can be mixed into hundreds of colors. When I picked up a bar of this clay and realized I could make products out of it, not be confined to traditional ceramic glazes, and I could create things in half the time, I was hooked. I can sit there for hours just putting colors together and wind up with a product people can actually use. I had the opportunity to move to a small house on the Rhode Island coast where I could sell my products, and with that I took a chance! I spend ten hours a day now playing - I mean working - on color combinations. I look at gardens, I tare apart magazines, I rummage through antique shops, I live in fabric and craft stores. All day I tune in to every hue around me. I pull them apart and put them back together and at the end of the day, I still find color absolutely invigorating.
So there is your answer, I get up every morning to work with and enjoy color. What’s great about such a simple concept is that my actual products can change on a whim. Check back frequently because I never enjoy making the same thing twice. My products will change as I find new inspirations. I love challenges, so please feel free to work with me on designing something for you. Just keep in mind,
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