- I've always had a love of nature and I think I put a lot of that passion into my arts.

I went to University of Wisconsin-Madison for zoology, conservation biology, and environmental studies.

So I really love the animals and I became a wildlife rehabilitator.

So I did that for five years at the Wisconsin Humane Society.

I started painting during the pandemic, watching the Bob Ross show.

(upbeat music) And I found out later that Bob Ross was actually a wildlife rehabilitator, too.

So he also took care of sick, injured, and orphaned animals.

One day I was watching Bob Ross and I thought, maybe I could do this.

(chuckles) And I just started painting along with him.

It gave me a lot of confidence and courage that I could do anything I set my mind to.

(upbeat music) (uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) (wind whooshing) The ideas come from nature a lot of the time, so I spend a lot of time outside.

So whenever I'm out in nature, if I see like a beautiful sunset, I'll take a picture of it and then I'll try to incorporate those colors into my painting.

I am constantly looking up at the sky, so sometimes I'll be like surrounded by trees and take a picture and the perspective, kind of gives me an idea of how I wanna do the tree line.

But it also gives me an appreciation of nature.

When I'm trying to capture a scene, you know, I feel like I'm really being observant out there.

As well, I'm trying to be present when I'm in nature, trying to get different ideas and let them come to me.

So it definitely feels like it gave me appreciation and a peacefulness to my life.

(gentle music) I started just doing kind of the landscape stuff, but eventually I wanted to put a little bit more of myself into it.

I don't see myself represented in a lot of fine arts spaces or fine art shows.

So I started doing like silhouettes of women.

It felt really empowering for me as a woman and I really liked the idea of diversifying it, having different types of people so people can really see themselves in my work.

At first it was more so just I wanted to see myself, I wanted to see women, and I felt empowered by the art that I was doing, but I really wanted to have other people see themselves in my work.

I meet so many people and they're always saying, you know, I can never do what you do.

I'm not an artist.

And I always tell them, like, everyone's an artist in their own way.

Just because you don't feel like you can paint, which Bob Ross always says, everyone can paint.

(chuckles) But I do believe that everyone is an artist in their own way.

Whether it's, you know, us playing a sport, or cooking, or watercolor, there's ways of expression everywhere and as long as you keep it up and it makes you happy and you're passionate about it, you can be an artist.

We all have greatness inside of us and we're as tall, as big as mountains and we're so full of color and life.

The abstract part of it, like, there are mountains within you, almost like, I guess everyone sees things differently when they look at their art or my art, but for what?

For me, when I see it, it's like, there are mountains within me and I think that's really cool.

So I feel like I'm the most excited about my work when I'm trying something new.

I saw wood-burning online once, so I just bought a new tool and started to try it out.

I just thought it would be really cool and a different thing to try.

I'm always looking for new fun art projects.

But yeah, it was a bit of a process and a learning curve for me.

This is obviously a very different medium.

And at first I was like burning way too much and it looked horrible.

(chuckles) So I think like less pressure and just a lot of patience is needed for this one.

And it's cool With this tool, I feel like I could use it different ways to make different textures and different styles of trees.

I tend to use this one the most 'cause it's got a fine point to it, so it's really good for detail.

There's thicker ones that are flat, which is really good for shading.

I'll use that on the mountains to kind of cover a lot of space.

So this one is really good for shading, 'cause it's flat and it covers a big area, so I'll use that for the mountain scenes here.

All the shading is nice, covers more area.

I don't have to do all these tiny, tiny lines.

And then this is a textured one where it's just got the lines on there.

And I started doing the trees with it, but I think it's too uniform and I don't like how it looked.

So I ended up using it for like the water here, just to kind of give it some movement.

The most rewarding thing is that every day is so different for me.

I think the most exciting part is when you're learning something new, the like, wow, I did that.

That's always the fun part.

(upbeat music) With doing art, it really doesn't feel like work to me.

A lot of people say, you know, don't you get tired of it?

Doesn't it take the joy out of painting?

But it doesn't feel like work.

I love going to art shows.

I think it's a great space to show off my art and meet new people who like my art and make me feel like I'm doing the right thing.

I'm in the right spot.

So I get to see a lot of the familiar faces come to a lot of those same art shows, and they get excited when they see me, and they're like, oh, you've got new stuff, and look at what you're doing now.

But all the other artists, I feel like we learn from each other, we boost each other up.

It's a really good space for artists and a way to express ourselves and show people what we can do.

(upbeat music) - [Person] She's Fabulous!

(chuckles) (upbeat music continues) - [Narrator] Thanks for watching The Arts Page.

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