Luckily for me, I grew up in a family peppered with Zesty Artistas – women with more than their fair share of creativity, gumption and salty, offbeat humor. That has served me in good stead.
When I was 13 years old, for example, it seemed perfectly reasonable to expect that people would want to part with their hard-earned money so as to own one of my blown eggs painted with faux Pennsylvania Dutch folk art, Asian scenes copied from books, and illustrations of introspective children lounging about with their overly large heads tilted adorably to one side. My mother, whose own quite lovely artwork was being sold in a Pennsylvania gift shop, generously offered my painstakingly painted eggs to the owner, not bothering to mention until she’d sealed the deal that her awkward adolescent daughter had done them. I sold some painted eggs, was ecstatic, and considered it evidence that I was destined for Big Things.
While my early infatuation with embellishing blown eggs did not prove to be a direct path to critical acclaim and fame, I have been fortunate enough to earn my keep in a variety of other creative professions. For many years I was a freelance journalist, writing for The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune as well as many national magazines, including Redbook, Ladies’ Home Journal, Parents,Entrepreneur and others. I’ve taught at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, was occasionally a substitute art teacher in Dubai during my reporting days there, and I’ve led workshops and seminars on writing, art and creativity, among other things. I’ve published a little fiction, written ad copy, and worked on various publications. During my years at Hallmark, I managed their internal think tank and studio-for-all-things-innovative, the Writing Collaboratory, and later worked as Editorial Director in their New Ventures area.
As for my own artwork, I have for years been infatuated with the marriage of vintage materials and photographs with language, and that’s evident in most of what I make.
Zesty Artista is a way to share my own work, but more importantly, really, to conduct something of a conversation about what it is to live a life that is truly a self-expression. I believe that how you put yourself together, how you choose to design your environment, how you contribute to others and the stuff of daily life is most fulfilling when it truly reflects you and your unique passions and perspective.
If Zesty Artista manages to cause a bit more of that to show up here and there, I’ll be a happy, happy woman.
