It all unraveled my last year of high school.
The moment my Chem teacher asked me to promise to never do anything in life that involved Chemistry.
During the final, he took me aside with his plea, requesting a sketch on my paper~ he would pass me on two counts.
A promise and a drawing.

Months of extra tutoring after class hadn’t paid off, in Chem or Biology.
Calculus was a bust.
I left devastated, turning in my paper, complete with landscape sketch.
Dreams of being a nurse like my Mom, squashed.
I wanted to make a difference in life.
Helping people as a nurse was a high calling, as was my Father’s work as a conservation officer, which also required science to pursue.
What could be as worthy as saving people or the planet and the life it holds?

In the beginning, I didn’t set out to be an artist.
Pursuing other careers, art evolved in stolen moments in time, at kitchen tables and in basements.
I was a travel agent, a maid. I waited tables and sat at a publishing desk for years.
I understood making a difference wasn’t necessarily a passion career. It could be helping a friend in need, volunteering for a shelter and Search and Rescue.

Transporting art I had displayed at a clinic, an epiphany arrived by a little girl.
She said the painting ‘made her feel better’ each time she visited the clinic.
Sincerity shimmering in the face of a child was astounding.
I was forever changed, realizing, in one moment, the work was making a difference.
I set out to pursue art full time.

My Road to Art has been a bumpy one.
Peppered with valleys and peaks, setbacks and triumphs.

While it is one thing to work improving the art, it is another entirely to sell it.
Not in any of those other jobs did people express I shouldn’t get paid for the work.
Yet at my first art exhibit, someone did just that.
“You love what you do, sales don’t matter, they should be a bonus.”
I asked him “do you love what you do?”
He owned his company and loved his work, he said emphatically.
“then should you be paid for your work?”
That’s different he replied.
In what way, I wondered.

I stopped and started full- time art, then stopped again, supplementing my income with other jobs.
A card decorated with colourful butterflies saying “Congratulations on being a full time artist- we love you! Mom and Dad” has sat close by for a decade.

It is at tremendous joy to have the work welcomed into spaces and families.
Clients have become life long friends.
I have known the excitement of new gallery representation, and the AFC Signature Membership nomination.
Then witnessed two established galleries recently close and felt financial stress and doubt.

I am fortunate to be able to donate to Health care facilities I may have worked in as a nurse, and Conservation efforts that mimicked my father’s pursuits.
I have worked on a project far bigger than I would have dreamed possible.
Experienced the expedition of a lifetime in the boreal.

Thru the valleys and peaks, I remain dedicated to the work.
Stumbled and pursued, believing whole heartedly in what I do.
The constant that art is for me: making a difference with love at the core.
On days I flounder, reminders float in from clients afar~

Since returning home, I have been especially grateful for all the beauty in the world. Most especially the beauty found in my own back yard and inside the home in which I live. Thank you for blessing me/us with your art!
Our home is made warmer, more inspiring, more life-filled and welcoming because of your art. Thank you for working so diligently to develop your gifts and then moving beyond yourself to share your work with the world.
Blessings upon the continuation of the tender work involved in keeping an open heart and sharing the essence of who you are through your art. DTM- May 2014 USA
New Sunset 12 x24 Original Oil

My son walked in to the living room.. saw the painting and said “Mum, it’s as if it has a soul in the background” Then he turned to the other wall where Leaves was .. and said “Wow! this one has a spirit in it!’
~S & M Casson May 2014~ Canada

I am filled with gratitude for all of you who have helped make it possible, the blessings art has given me.
I don’t know what tomorrow brings, or how long I will be able to pursue art.
Whatever happens, I never doubt that it is a worthy purpose.