I am Who I am

About a year and a half ago I was the curator of American art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I spent 25 years in charge of the American art collection.

I purchased paintings, sculpture, watercolors and drawings for the collection. I started the museum's collection of African American art and built it into something I and the museum could be proud of. I wrote books on art, "A Shared Heritage," "Edward Hopper's Hotel Lobby" and the "History of the Herron School of Art - Early Years," and I have written many articles for American Art Review.

I loved every minute of my job, especially training the docents in American art. But there came a day when the museum found itself running low on funds and there was a big layoff. Sadly, I left the position I loved and moved on.

After the museum, I decided that I still wanted to be in the arts, but this time I wanted to be on the creative side. I took courses at the Indianapolis Art Center and fell in love with jewelry designing.

I tried to learn all the techniques I could and now specialize in fine silver created from precious metal clay. I am a certified precious metal clay artist.

I have won two prizes in jewelry, Rio Grand Award for Jewelry and Second Prize for Wire Wrapping.

I have an Etsy shop www.HGWjewelrydesigns.etsy.com and a website www.HGWartisanjewelry.com

I read. Most of the time what I read is related to art or creating jewelry, but in my really spare time I read paranormal romance novels. I love everything vampire, otherworldly, and fantasy.

Recently we refinished part of our attic to hold my paperback books. Now I find the authors that are successful are putting their first editions in hardback, so I added a bookcase to fit the hardback books.

I do not own a Kindle or a Nook or any other book reader, because I love turning pages. The feel of the book in my hand makes the characters more alive. I flip back and forth to parts I want to reread and parts I need to reread to understand the story. I go back to previous books to try to remember all the characters in each series.

I am addicted to reading these novels. My wish list on Amazon is filled with upcoming new books in the many series that I read.

I tried watching "Trueblood," the Sookie Stackhouse novels brought to television in all their gory detail, but even though I can read all this gore on the pages of my books, seeing it in vivid red is more than I can stand.

Back to my books. I read them in the gym, in the restaurant, in the hair salon, and at home for relaxation between designing my jewelry. I call it research in the art of the paranormal novel.

I go to the gym six days a week. On alternate days I do weight training and elliptical aerobic. I used to do step class but I had tendinitis and had to stop, so not to be daunted I changed my routine. I do the rowing machine on my weight days for fifteen minutes to warm up and I watch NCIS on my elliptical days to keep boredom in check.

I am determined that my body stay the way it was and is for as long as I can keep it that way. It takes work and sometimes I do not feel like exercising, but I go anyway, because if I don't then I will get in the habit of making excuses.

I always feel better after I go to the gym. I have been doing this for almost thirty years, except for a few years when my tendinitis kept me away. Exercising makes me happy, and I hope it keeps me healthy.