Wild Faces Gallery Art Lensography

I always believed my life would be dedicated to animals. Even as a small child I had a way with animals that bordered on the mystical.

My earliest memory of such an experience was when I was about 3 or 4 my father who was a farm mechanic, took me along with him to work on a tractor. Once there he told me to sit down and stay out of the way, as farm equipment are dangerous. So I did as I was told. The farmer pulled his tractor in and his dog a large shepherd mix, was running alongside. Within a few minutes the dog came and sat next to me, both of us facing the men. He didn't really interact with me. He just sat there looking at his owner and my father. I put my hands on the dog's back and gently stroked him without giving it much thought. I was raised around dogs so it all seemed perfectly natural. It was only when the farmer was ready to leave that he noticed me with his dog. He was shocked and a little worried because apparently his dog was quite aggressive by nature and didn't really like anybody, including his owner.

This kind of thing happened all of the time throughout my life. On a job interview at an equestrian stable I was asked to put a halter on a uncatchable horse. I walked in, walked right up to her, slipped on the halter within 20 seconds and gave the lady a look like "now what?"

Another time when I was photographing some Servals (they are an African cat very similar to a cheetah) I was warned by the keeper that the male was very protective of his mate and had attacked a reporter the day before. Turns out both cats loved me, to the handlers great surprise and I was able to get some amazing photos.

I'm not sure why I have this connections with animals. It just is. I think a big part of it is an energy I project. A calm acceptance. But I really don't know.

My father-in-law wanted to retire from farming and so my husband had decided he would like to give it a go. It's kinda what is expected of sons of farmers. Mike being the only son was pretty much expected to take over and run it until we had a son of our own to hand it over to. Well . . . it didn't really work out that way. For starters, we never had any kids.

How It All Began
When we moved to rural Iowa in 1995 to become organic farmers, I got a lung infection (coincidentally enough known as Farmer's Lung) and when I was just barely recovered my husband got severely burned. Our plans to be organic farmers while not ended, were definitely changed by our financial issues over the farming start-up costs and paying off the hospitals.

So you see it was a wild card that I started a gallery and pursued my art. It was never a plan or a goal. It was more like "What can I do out here in the boonies to help make some money." That's how it all began. I had done a little freelance art in college for some extra money and also did a couple of art fairs for fun, so I thought "well why not?"

I started out by making some reproductions of my work and entering into some small art fairs and galleries. When I had some sales, I reinvested some of the money and did bigger events. For years I continued honing my craft, entering bigger events and buying better printer setups for making prints.

It was doing the art fairs that opened possibilities that I might not otherwise have had access to. I can honestly say that everything that my business has become is directly attributable to doing art fairs.

When I initially started out I was working in graphite pencil and pen & ink. I knew that color was a more salable option, so I bought myself a set of watercolor pencils. At that time they were a relatively new medium. There weren't really any How-To books on the subject. Since I've had no formal art training (unless you count grade school art classes) my joy has always been in figuring out to work work a medium on my own terms. I like the challenge and discovery.

I worked with watercolor pencils for years developing my skills to make the paintings more realistic and detailed. The above image of a pair of draft mules called Working Girls is a good representation of that. Of course nearly all of the artwork was of animals. There really isn't much else that continually inspires me. Since I am not a painter, these pencils were a easy fit. I like the immediate connection I feel with pencil to board, over that disconnect of brush to paper.

Growing up my family and friends had a long standing tradition of creating handmade items every year for decorating and gifting. This is a tradition I still do, though what I do has changed a bit over the years.

The lenses below are some of my more current as well as my favorite projects.

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes for relaxation. I often read for an hour or so before bed. It helps quite my mind and keeps me from obsessing about all of the things I need to do the following day.

I don't really have a genre' that I stick with. I'll read most anything but I do enjoy a little light fluff reading in between all the series stuffs. These types of books tend to also be what I most enjoy create lenses about.