Simply Art-Rageous ~ Adventures, Projects, Passions & More
Soul-Journer ~ Restoration of a 16 ft. Scamp Trailer
Welcome! I'm an artist, recently-retired art teacher, amateur genealogist, photography and sewing enthusiast, and animal and wildlife advocate in Virginia.
I've lived in this general area most of my life and I used to hang out--as a teenager--at the private school where I taught for 23 years. I guess this shows that I haven't strayed too far from home over the years! I was one of "those" types during high school--you know, the art, music, drama, literary magazine, philosophy club sort. I really haven't strayed too far from "home" over the years in those ways, either!
I graduated magna cum laude from Bridgewater College in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where I earned a BA in Studio Art and had elective credits in just about everything else. To me, a liberal arts education is like a smorgasboard for the mind. I'm intensely curious, I've always loved to think, and I've always loved to learn. Still do.
I worked in a therapeutic rec field with elderly and handicapped adults for several years after I graduated from college, and it was a wonderfully rewarding experience. One Halloween, the residents and I wrote and acted in a short play and invited preschool children to the nursing facility to see it.
After my sons were born, I stayed home until they were both in school. During those years I did a LOT of commissioned artwork, designed and marketed cross-stitch kits (with retailers in three states), and first began learning about computers, while doing recordkeeping (from home) for small businesses. I also went back to school to become licensed to teach Art in grades K-12.
I started working in a public elementary school in 1992, and from 1999 to 2022 I taught art at the private college-prep school where the movie "Toy Soldiers" was filmed! I started this website during my first year of teaching art there, and now, thanks to the support of visitors who make purchases through links on these pages, most of my web hosting expenses are covered.
So those are the basics about me, but as I have grown older--and hopefully wiser--and as I've watched my sons and my students grow up, move on and become adults, I have felt a growing concern about the health and well-being of our fragile planet and her inhabitants.
I have not had the opportunity to travel the world, but since 1992 in the two schools I have worked, the world has come to me! It has been my joy and my privilege to get to know young children or teenagers from South Korea, China, Vietnam, India, Russia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Madagascar, France, Brazil, Lithuania, Spain, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Guatemala, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Iran, and others.
Jimmy Carter said, "We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams." It has been my experience, however, that the individuals within this mosaic have far more similarities than differences; we can learn so much from each other.
I treasure each piece of the world that has touched me through the lives of my students. These beautiful, crazy, and totally art-rageous kids have truly enriched my life. ♥
"Peace is not won by those who fiercely guard their differences,
but by those who with open minds and hearts seek out connections."
~ Katherine Paterson
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice,
he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring,
those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
~ Robert Kennedy
Genealogy Resources My Gardens
Pets & Wildlife
My Song Lyrics & Poetry
Contra Dancing
About My School
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