A warm hardboiled egg was placed in my small hands…..

That was the beginning of drawing faces. I come from people who were involved in the arts in one way or another or in several ways such as visual art, music, poetry, or short stories. But from a young age I was always drawing, using colors (love the smell of Crayola Crayons!) and dabbling in paints. So, one day when I was about 5 my Mom boiled some eggs and decided she would show my sisters and me how to draw a face. It was illuminating! I practiced and practiced and finally decided it would be easier on paper, and it was. But the basic formula for faces was and still is, there.

I was born and raised in Montana and a lot of our time as a family was spent outside. My mother was an excellent watercolorist. My grandmother (on my Dad’s side) did botanical studies in watercolor and colored pencil. So, I was very much influenced by watching my mom and grandmother draw and paint. We often just packed a lunch and went outdoors somewhere to draw and paint.

Eventually I went on to earn a B.F.A. from the University of Montana in Missoula. My specialty was drawing, watercolor and stone lithography. At that time art did not pay the bills very well, so when My husband, Reid Schoonover (M.F.A., Ceramics and Sculpture) and I moved to Elgin, Illinois, I turned to illustration. Drawing to please a client was a whole new experience.

Later, one of our two sons was born and by that time Reid was teaching art. We decided after much talking and thinking to jump in with all of our feet and we moved to Wisconsin to live in the woods as free-lance artists. Reid taught and made pottery and I free-lanced, but mostly made quilts. We did that for 5 years. Shortly after moving to the woods by a chain of lakes our second son was born. The wolf at the door brought friends and surviving as free-lance artists was not easy! We heard that wolf and friends at the door quite a lot. Eventually Reid returned to teaching and we moved to Clintonville (Wisconsin). I taught everything I thought I could teach (quilt-making, drawing, watercolor, Chinese cooking). Later, after my experience of teaching gifted/talented children (another story), I earned my MEAS from University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. After that, my Ph.D. in Education was earned through Walden University. I taught and worked with programs through the University of Wisconsin system for over 25 years.

I have come full circle and have returned full force to art. I am home.