I grew up surrounded by creativity. Both my parents were extremely creative in one way or another. They both encouraged me to try different ways of expressing myself even as a child. Nothing was “impossible” to make or do, some things were just more “challenging” than others . . .

     Artistically curious by nature, in over 20 years, I’ve explored many different fields & mediums of artistic expression;

    My credentials include a 4 year BS in Design, but this really may not be significant, since I feel the quality of my work alone says more, than any degree ever could. After high school, I handed in my portfolio to one of my local colleges which had a Design department. I was accepted, and  this began my journey into other ARTISTIC mediums of expression. My favorite was jewelry design and sculpting with wax for casting into sterling silver pieces.  However, my degree was not “practical” as there were not many jobs out there for a multi-talented artist. Especially one that needed to be inspired in order to create.

    While in college I came up with a symbol, which I used to sign all my artwork, in lieu of using my name or initials. It looks like a combination of the astrological symbol used for the planet Saturn, with a small dot just waiting to fall off of a slanted bar.

     One of my early jobs (pure FATE?), brought me to Appletown Creations a small privately owned porcelain doll shop at the time they were producting the limited edition doll “The Baby of Liberty”. This was an AWESOME job. I spent the best years of my life there, and had so much fun! The owners, Laura & Dale Hacker, were very open-minded and encouraged me to try “different” ways of creative expression. It was here that I learned how to work with porcelain, sew, make patterns, china paint and of course create stunning/unusual dolls.  This connected me with other creative folks who encouraged me to enter my creations into local as well as international competition. I wasn’t that sure people would except my “radical” dolls, but some judges did like them, I was awarded blue ribbons and Best of Show for them.

     Some of my dolls were featured in DOLL READER (Sept, 1989 issue) titled “Fantasy Faces.”  Due to business failing in the doll/porcelain industry I was forced to seek employment elsewhere. Appletown Creations unfortunately, wasn’t able to compete with the porcelain products from foreign countries that was saturating the marketplace. So now my artistic talents are used purely for pleasure and freelance work.

     In 2001, I began experimenting with creating my own clip-art, using Microsoft®  Excel® . I wasn’t able to find any books on using Excel® as a drawing tool, so I sent some of my work to John Walkenbach  an expert on Microsoft®  Excel® , who was amazed at what I was doing. I told him that he could send me any picture and I could create a clip-art of it, he took me up on my challenge and sent me a photo of himself. I made a clip-art and sent it back to him. He was surprised and asked me if he could put some of my work on his website www.j-walk.com/ss/excel/odd/odd22.htm, and he also included examples of my work in his book Excel®  Charts (Wiley Publications, 2003, ISBN 0-7645-1764-3, pg 371-373). So now, I am actively exploring the creation of customized clip-art and writing a book on HOW I do it. I am also exploring website design.

 

    I love animals and I especially adore my five cats. I am an advocate for the homeless strays, as such I have volunteered my artistic services to one of my local non-profit groups, Cat Haven of W.N.Y. which strives to find homes for stray, abandoned or abused felines of the Western New York Region. I also am in charge of the design and layout of their newsletters. Several of my “customized” clip-art drawings (which are made with Excel®) are used by Cat Haven in their literature. It makes me feel good to be able to be a part of trying to help place these animals into loving adoptive homes, and using my talents towards a good cause.

           I’ve also designed for Cat Haven of W.N.Y. a brochure, as well as a CAT-O-Log which shows the different items that are offered to help raise funds, as well as designing for them customized Christmas cards  which are then offered for sale, I am happy to say that 100% of the profits from all items sold, goes directly to help support the felines under Cat Haven’s care.

         My Kitten & Puppy in Heart designs, are one of the most intricate clip-arts that I’ve created (on Excel®), and I feel they are absolutely stunning. Although these copyrighted designs are not currently available for re-sale, eventually I hope to have them printed on tee-shirts (or other items), so that the profits from the sales can then be donated to non-profit animal groups.

 

Here is a good example of tee-shirt designs which were created using the drawing tools in Excel® which I created for CatHaven this is a copyrighted design owned by CatHaven of WNY. If interested  in purchasing any of these tees, please visit their website at– www.CatHavenOfWNY.org 100% of the profits from the sale of these tee’s goes to help support the felines in the care of CatHaven. They are currently available in either grey or black. Sizes Avail-  Small thru XLarge @ $15ea and 2X thru 3X @ $17ea.

About Me;

Click on clip-art of “Baby of Liberty” to learn about these limited porcelain dolls created by Appletown Creations of Lancaster, New York.

    Also for info on “The Littlest Immigrant” and the older “Children for Liberty” porcelain dolls also made by this company in the mid 1980’s.