FarStarr

I am 51, happily married and have a 25 year old daughter (Her birthday is Halloween)..eek! I met my husband in high school...sat behind him in Anatomy class!! Our daughter graduated from WPI with her Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering. Yeah, we've always had a problem with that girl... :P

Our home is filled with collections-old cast iron animal figures and figural bottle-openers, Mr Peanut, antique advertising tins, Czech pottery birds, over 4000 cookbooks, antique gameboards and lots of fish!

As far as art goes, I have been focusing on collage, assemblage, mixed media and mailart for a few years now. I especially love gathering "Beautiful Trash" from everywhere I go! Someday I'll use it all...Hmmm maybe not! We had to put an addition on the house a few years ago because my fabric stash was out of hand. You know how a goldfish grows to fit it's space??? Well my stuff has grown to fit it's new space! The "art supplies" are threatening to take over the house and my husband has "Hoarders" on speed dial.

I'm not a cat or dog person. We have had three house bunnies over the years. I do miss nibbles to my feet from a bun while sitting creating, but with the girl off at college we are footloose and fancy free....and pet-free.

As a family we have done a few things that most people don't do anymore-beekeeping, making our own maple syrup, cheese-making, and jelly-making. I grew up on a small farm and could still milk a cow or split firewood if I had to.

We have a very small piece of property in a gorgeous town on the New England coast. On our little piece of property we have grapes, a cherry tree, a peach tree, and apple tree, veggie garden, blackberries, and blueberries. Spring is my favorite season. Seeing the green shoots bursting out of last year's leaves is amazing.

Some years ago my wonderful husband built an awesome pond. Well, it's more like 2 ponds, a river, and 2 waterfalls. It is so cool! We had a devastating heron hit one spring and were left with only one damaged koi. We thought the the heron prevention tactics we were implementing were working as we hadn't lost any fish in 2 years.Grrrrr..Those things give me nightmares!

My favorite colors are greens (all except olive) and blues. Taupe, olive green,and burnt orange are yucky. My favorite things include fish (duh), antique advertising, textures, fabrics, and books (old ones to cut up).

I'm wicked sarcastic, so if I write something and it sounds mean...it isn't. I find that I have to always add smiley faces to emails so people know I'm kidding.

I've been dipping my toes into teaching mixed media art techniques and mailart and loving it!

I believe in rating timely, communicating with partners if there is a problem, and generally being kind to others.

I tend to avoid drama. Aren't we really just here to have fun??

The Princess Bride, Better Off Dead, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Currently favorites- Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met your Mother, The Middle, New Girl, and Grimm.

We watch alot of Food Network and Bravo too. I'm guilty of watching all of the Housewives...

Favorite classics-Arrested Development, Faulty Towers.

Mailart...Altered Art..Altered Books...Quilting...Fabric Journals...ATC's...Photography...Collage..

I really don't like the practice of adding wings to everything..faeries and cutsie stuff just aren't my thing. I don't love "inspirational" words like Fly, Dream, or Dance. They just seem overdone to me. I also don't like people in my art...unless they are presented as hilariously ridiculous or are about to have some horrible fate befall them.

My odd sense of humor is sometimes fairly obvious in my art. I am a little irreverent..ok alot. I don't like following rules with art. My first quilt was a tumbling block and I really didn't think they were talking to me when the book said to stop your seam a 1/4 inch before the end of the piece. Turns out there was a reason! I have been collecting clothing labels for years. Someday I'm going to make a quilt of just clothing labels, like the old cigar silk quilts.

I am self-taught in all my art. I read ALOT! I have absorbed so many books and magazines!

FISH themes seem to make it into almost anything I make :).

***I HAVE A HUGE PERFUME ALLERGY**** Please don't send anything scented. I can usually handle fruit smells, but anything else makes it so that I can't breathe..Thanks!