(bright music) - I'm a color person and the joy, that layering of colors, it just makes my heart sing.

(bright music) The journey that I have taken to get to where I am today was not the path that I planned (laughs).

I always had it in my mind, I would be an engineer.

From sixth grade on, it was math and science, no art, didn't want that.

I went for about a year in engineering in college and knew that just didn't feel right.

So I went over to the College of Design and enrolled in the interior design program and graduated top of my class and really loved it.

We decided to start a family, my husband and I did.

I wanted to be around a little more, if we we're able to raise a family.

I decided to do something from home.

I started doing greeting cards and calligraphy and making jewelry and all these craft projects and a publisher found me and said, "Change your greeting cards into a story."

And so I ended up writing six little books and they were sold internationally, and they were very, I call them sophisticated stick people (laughs).

I've come a long way, but anyway, that was pretty much the onset.

And I really am a self-taught artist.

So it was self-exploration the whole time, finding out what direction to to.

My favorite medium will probably always be acrylics.

I just know it so well.

I love mixed media.

So I'll do the acrylics, but I always throw in graphite or some method of sketching.

I love to sketch with it, just to always make it my own.

I like to do dry brushing, a dry paint over another paint.

So it just snags over the top and you can still see the other color coming through.

And to me that is like, wow, (laughs) this is awesome!

I can still see the pink underneath, but this has got aqua over it, and a little hint of yellow, and it just, they all are coming together, but it's textures.

And that just, that's totally why I do it.

That makes me really happy.

When I start a painting I always have an idea of where I'm going.

But for me the joy is evolution.

So while I know I'm gonna do this sheep or this leaping lamb or something like that, I have an idea of its shape, but I don't know exactly what its attitude will be or the colors.

What will I punch out more?

What will I emphasize more?

I do have ideas to start with, but it's definitely an evolution.

(upbeat music) I do an awful lot of commissions but it's based off of what I am doing, and they like it.

And so they'll say, "Can I have a piece similar to that," or be inspired by that piece.

But I'm also leaning much more toward large public installations, like entering competitions that are on a much larger scale.

That is how I was able to be selected to be on the Skyway across Broadway in Fargo.

It was an open call for art.

And I had been wanting to put something on that Skyway for a long time and it was approved.

And so that was another way of me getting art to the public.

(soft music) I've had a wonderful partnership of working with West Acres Mall because they've given me opportunities that I probably wouldn't have had.

I've designed out at West Acres Mall, the playroom, the mural out there.

If it were laid out flat, it would be about 185 feet by, I don't know, 16 feet high.

That was a wonderful project, a great opportunity to do whatever.

They just like what I do, so I get to make the decisions on that.

(upbeat music) I don't want it to stop at just there's another pretty painting.

So while the colors are fabulous and everything, I hope that a person is pulled closer to see the process.

I always leave the lines of sketches and whatever happens underneath.

That's like, I keep saying the evolution of the painting.

I want people to see that.

That's the depth also.

I don't do a flower painting, just a bouquet or something.

I will do a giant flower.

I'll do something that will take you closer, pull you in more.

That's what I want the experience to be.

- [Announcer] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.