Female

44

Since my life was forever altered by an incomplete spinal cord injury in 1998, my life has been about making art and continuing with my writing career. I was left with severe lumbar and sacral nerve damage, causing chronic pain and depression , ad nauseum.

My whole life is infused with art. More accurately I make art. I write, paint, sculpt, assemble and build. When I’m not making art, I’m thinking about making it. I think about it in the shower or while I’m making fried chicken for dinner on Friday night. It’s in my head when I am emptying litter boxes and cleaning the ferret cage. It’s there when I clean the toilet and dump dirty clothes in the washer and take clean ones out of the dryer. It’s there when my health won’t allow me to make it. I dream about art when I am sleeping. My hobbies revolve around art. I watch movies and television about art. I read about art. Manthing is an artist and 95% of my friends, yes, even my bosses, are artists of some kind. I write about art. My part-time jobs all involve art. I talk about art when I am not making it, sleeping with it, watching it, or reading or writing about it. Art is my best pain killer.

I am now actively involved in making my creative dreams real, creating and developing larger scale works which utilize my style and techniques and explore new media. I also offer art tutoring to individuals and facilitate private classes and small workshops in addition to working part-time for VSA arts of Virginia and as Gallery Administrator for 12 12 Gallery.

I live in Richmond, Virginia, devoted to the love of my life affectionately known as Manthing, a menagerie of furry children and a modest circle of very talented and creative people who I am fortunate enough to call friends.