I suppose I'm like 99% of the folks in this hobby, who grew-up totally horse crazy and just stayed that way. When I was very young, my family lived on an acreage in the middle of Iowa - we had all of the usual critters; chickens, geese, ducks, cats, assorted small house pets, we raised meat rabbits, and bred for a few nice German Shepard pups a year also. I very fondly remember the day we went to pick up my very own pony - her name was "Goldie" and she was a pretty Welsh pony mix and was, of course, a flaxen chestnut. She was in foal when we bought her, and foaled a son, "Danny Boy", who was colored much the same as she was, but even more flaxen. I still have a few pictures of these two - which are dear to me. We moved away from "the country" when I was still pretty young, and personal horse ownership was gone from my life.

It was my Mom who taught my Brothers and I the love of animals, and passed her artistic talents onto us also. In my case, she also got me into the model horses. She brought me a horse here, and a horse there, mostly dime store toys and Japan Chinas. I have some old Hartlands she also got me, including a lovely, near mint, dark blue classic sized Arab mare, that I somehow have no recollections of from my youth. I only got four Breyers as a child, the first being a palomino FAF, followed by a bay running mare and foal, and a dappled grey PAM (my favorite mold of all OF Breyers). After that, as I got to be a teenager, it was up to me to get new Breyers as I could, whether it was at the yearly county fair, with babysitting money, or at the Arabian Horse Show that came to the local show arena each summer. I still have all of my early Breyers, and other assorted horses, and I enjoy them all, even the little rubber pony I found digging in the dirt, back on the farm.

Artistically - I have always been able to draw and paint, and ALWAYS did horses, no matter how hard my teachers tried to get me to do otherwise. As I got older, in high school and college, I did other subject matters and exercises as I needed to, and understood they were beneficial to my growth as an artist, but I still came back the horses in the end. I read every book on horses I could get my hands on, went to horse shows when I could, subscribed to magazines, and studied all kinds of artwork depicting horses. Ever since I could tell the difference, Arabians have been my all time favorite breed, though as I grew older I developed more and more interest for other breeds as well. I tend to favor saddle-types in general (like Saddlebreds and Morgans), and also have found myself becoming quite enamored with Spanish breeds and Akhal Tekes. The longer I am in this hobby the more I grow to appreciate the many and varied breeds of horses in this world.

I went to college at the University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, where I had lived since we had moved away from the farm. There I got my degree in Fine Art, with a minor in Physical Anthropology. After college my then boyfriend/fiancee and I moved to Dallas, TX and we eventually were married there. I still got new Breyers every so often, mainly from my husband buying me one each Christmas and Birthday. I'm not sure which happened first, us getting a computer and getting on the internet, or my first subscription to JAH and other hobby magazines, but I know that it was about 1994, and that it was the beginning of the course my life takes to this day. A whole new world opened up to me, I was enthralled with the CM's I saw in the magazines, the articles on repainting techniques, and the sales lists. I discovered Haynet and the "obsession" grew. My OF collection steadily began to blossom, and I became very serious about learning how to do my own customs. I bought a copy of Carol Williams "Color Formulas and Techniques", a set of oil paints, some epoxy, and I was off! I still have my first two CM's - a black tobiano SM Arab stallion, and a flashy, customized, bay FAS. In 1995 I went to my very first live show, Lonestar Live, which was being held during, and at, the Texas State Fair in Dallas. I took my few first customs, my best OF's, and actually came home with a number of ribbons, even though I opted to show in the open division, instead of novice. I meet some very nice hobby people, got interviewed for the Dallas Morning News, and had a lot of fun! To this day I still adore live showing and remember the fine people I meet that weekend.

An after effect of that show was an outside interest in my repainting "talents", as I had received a few inquiries about taking on paintwork commissions. I began to come up with some ideas on actually doing this, and was formulating a price list, in early 1996, when my husband dropped an enormous bombshell on me - he announced that he was divorcing me, after 16 years of being together, and five years of marriage. My life at that very moment came to a complete halt. I was devastated and I soon moved to Kansas City, to live with my Brother and his family, while I rebuilt my life. I lived with them for nearly two years as I learned to live for *me*. Once I was ready to rejoin the work force I found a job with a local Arab show barn, and spent that whole summer working as their show groom. I had the extreme pleasure of working with a number of great horses, some of them National and Scotsdale champions! I already knew a lot of what I needed to do, but I gained so much more knowledge while I was there. It's a pretty intensive weekend when you are caring for 15 horses that you have stabled at a large regional show - doing everything from feeding and cleaning stalls, bathing and body clipping, to glossing hooves, and tacking each horse for their classes. I did it all, and even slept in the barn with the horses, while away at shows. In the end it was the sleeping in the barns that was the sad end to this job for me, my asthma just couldn't take that kind of abuse. I really loved all that I was exposed to while working there, from the regional show scene and the famous trainers, to just spending some quiet time with a gorgeous stallion grazing at the end of my lead line.

My Brother, Chris, and his wife helped set me up in a small home of my own in 1998. I was able to have a room just for my model horse collection, and I set myself up for painting, with my brand new airbrush, at my computer desk, so I could get back to the work of customizing model horses for myself and others! By then I was working in a dental lab, as a denture technician - a job where I went part-time about 5 years ago, in order to paint full time instead. I love the feeling of improvement in my skills, and had found how quickly I could grow with more time to devote to it. I am also pretty fussy about having a quick turn-a-round time on my commissions, and having more time for it was such a help. Then, three years ago a completely perfect and wonderful man came in to my life (we meet on the internet, on a Mac forum, of all places) and showed me that it *was* possible to love and trust again. Greg and I carried-on a long distance relationship for just about a year, and at that point he left Los Angeles to be with me here in Kansas City. It's because of the stability and support he gave me that I was able to totally drop the "security blanket" of my part time job in February 2006. That job was such a drain on me, both mentally and time-wise, and once shed of it's burden I was really able to take off and do some serious work and skill building. Greg were married on November 30th of 2006, in Las Vegas (how FUN that was!), and by the end of New Years weekend we had found a lovely new house to buy in our area. Only a month later we were moved into our new home, by some miracle of frenzied packing and planning! I Now have a much nicer airbrushing area in the basement, with it's ever evolving lighting experiments, a nice photo-shoot set-up, a shipping section in the laundry room, and a small work room for some of the messier prepping/priming that needs to be done.

Medium-wise, I made the change to airbrushing, from the oil paints, in 1997. I do still love oil paints, but had always adored how an airbrushed horse could look if done well. I had gotten a Paasche airbrush in 1995, but had only dabbled with it and used it for basecoats, until I decided to work with it some more once I moved to Kansas City. I acquired enough skills to do some decent work with it, and then moved on to a nicer and more precise Iwata Eclipse in 1999. In 2000 I moved up to a real Cadillac in the airbrush world, an Iwata Micron, which is probably the last upgrade I can see needing to make with an airbrush. I also use hand painted acrylics, pastels, and colored pencils in my work. I am always searching for reference pics of horses to use in my work - be it online or through my large collection of horse books. I try to be correct in what I do (I am certainly not perfect though), and like being able to advise a customer on colors that would work for their new resin, or on what molds would be appropriate for a portrayal of their favorite breed. I tend to think of repainting as walking a fine line between fantasy and reality - using the fantasy elements to breathe life into a horse shaped chunk of resin. You go too realistic and the piece falls flat - go too fantastic and it becomes satire. I always keep in mind that I am trying to recreate my own (or a customer's) "ideal" and "perfect" version of our dream horse in a miniature form, while be true to the life spirit and flow of a real horse. I want a whole kaleidoscope of horses in my CM collection - representative all of the fabulous horses I will never be able to own in real life. I also try to go to as many model horse shows in this region as I can find, and that I can make the time for. I love model horse showing (the resin halter division being my gig), and feel it's very exciting and fun. I enjoy meeting all of the new people at these shows, hooking up with old friends, seeing everyone else's nifty horses and performance set-ups, catching up on the latest news, and sharing the newest stories. I have a real fondness for friendly competition, and really like to test my work in the ring this way. I find it very challenging.

I have heard the phrase "they're only plastic horses" used in the past, and while that may be true, I feel it somewhat trivializes all of the wonderful things this hobby can be, beyond collecting model horses. I see so many talented artists out there, and so many more very kind and friendly people. I see shy youngsters becoming less shy, and people from all walks of life, and all regions of the country (and the world even), coming together to share our love and appreciation of the Equine species. THIS is what this hobby is all about - the people - not just "toy horses". I truly love this hobby, and hope to see it prosper and grow over the upcoming years. I have so many people to thank in the hobby - from all of my online friends for believing in me, to my wonderful customers, and all of the talented artists in the hobby who inspire me so deeply. I feel privileged to be a part of it all, and look forward to meeting as many of you all as I can in the coming years.

PS - if you'd like to see some video footage of myself and my husband Greg, do check out this clip of an in-production hobby documentary - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68hEto84Cu4. This bit here was shot on March 10th, 2007.

PPS: Here are some photos taken before our wedding ceremony!