I dabbled at the edge of the art pool for years ... mixed media collages, painted garden pots, colorful tiled garden hardscape installations. The work that I consider my first completed painting, my frightening leap into the deep end of the pool, is SURVIVE. It was done in 2017, in the first art workshop that I attended. It was begun a year after my mother's death and my sister's suicide. It was completed after my husband's cancer diagnosis. Life is filled with happiness and sadness. I choose to focus on the sadness and to turn that darkness into something bright and wonderful and happy. Vibrant colors energize and excite. I LOVE color. Inspired by all that surrounds me, I paint lightly abstract floral works ... renderings of bold flowers with rich splashes of color.