Throughout my life I have been blessed with opportunities. From crewing the HMS Bounty tall ship from Jacksonville, Florida, to South Street Seaport in New York City to summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, I have lived my life and relished the sights and sounds of many cultures. My life-long desire to paint has reconnected me with nature and my roots. My brushes are worn and my paints are brilliant in color and hue. My camera is by me when I single paddle in my blue kayak into the swamps and tributaries of the mighty St. Johns and Suwannee Rivers and Okefenokee Swamp. My pen has scribed books, my latest “Re-Rooting: Life’s Journey.” My suite of seven paintings on the life and times of the pioneer of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale has been pivotal in my career. “Florence Nightingale – The 39th Nurse” has traveled throughout the U.S. (Jacksonville, FL; Tacoma, WA; Newberg, NY; Shreveport, LA; Ft. Wayne, IN) at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums. I opened in Panama City, Panama, at The National Museum of Anthropology with a cultural grant from the U.S. Embassy in Panama, and came back to deliver a seminar on Florence and her impact on the nursing profession. In addition to the suite, I developed two Legacy Towers of historical ephemera, which are encased in plexiglass and feature important items, such as her personal carte de vista card, a holiday greeting to her niece, Victorian books written about her. I continue to have extraordinary experiences put in my path regarding the Nightingale exhibit, and am presently writing a book about those adventures. My heartfelt focus is on the natural and disappearing landscapes of the South, its migratory birds and forests. I join others who feel a duty to visually preserve and protect the flora, fauna and animals, as much as possible. I am also very involved with the “art of healing” on multiple levels, which impacts both my visual presentation as well as some of the resources I use for my exhibits. Brilliant colors are a trademark on my canvases, and I am often asked to speak so that I may connect with those who enjoy similar paths in life and on my work. Since I have expanded my horizon as an artist, I have been blessed with good fortune, good friends and a loving family – I am truly blessed and pleased to be recognized by the Art in Embassies Program.
websites:
www.florencenightingaleexhibit.com/
www.thenursinginspirationproject.com/
www.greatblueheronstudios.com/
