I grew up with parents who were eclectic; my father’s interests included rock and fossil hunting, poetry writing, mountain music, gardening, and  wood carving. My mother was into painting, art history, sewing and doll collecting. We children were pulled into their interests and so I spent many childhood days thigh high in creeks sifting for fossils, combining flea markets for treasures or leafing through art history books while my mother painted nearby. My parents, who grew up in Black Mountain, North Carolina, had been  influenced in their thinking by the Black Mountain College which was both eclectic and eccentric especially by the standards of the time. All these activities our parents provided taught me and my siblings to find beauty in the unexpected.I had thought I might like to be an archaeologist or a paleontologist but when my family moved back to Black Mountain when I was a teenager I began to gravitate towards the arts—first as a dancer and then as a visual artist. I attended high school at The North Carolina School of the Arts where I met my husband, Darryl Brown. I continued my studies with a BFA from East Carolina University and an MFA from The University of Georgia. Along with raising two wonderful children I have spent the last thirty years making and teaching art.