My why
I’ve always wanted to be an artist. Ever since I got my first How to Draw Fashions book from a book fair in 4th grade, I’ve loved being creative and making art.
I still have every single sketchbook I’ve ever drawn in—including that one from 4th grade full of 80s fashion designs. No one ever had to tell me to practice or stick with it. I just loved it. I found ways to draw even when I wasn’t supposed to—like doodling all over my school notebooks or sketching on church bulletins using a hymn book as my (very tiny) desk.
Fast forward to graduation day at BGSU, where I earned a Fine Arts degree with a major in Drawing and a minor in… having absolutely no idea what I would do next. That’s when teaching found me. My hometown needed its first-ever elementary art teacher—and I was hired two weeks before the first day of school. No experience, no education courses to speak of… and yet, there I was: an art teacher for the very first time.
I taught that first year with my high school art teacher as my mentor. She was the first person who recognized that I might actually have a gift for teaching, even if I wasn’t so sure. I was offered a continuing contract, but I turned it down. Instead, I moved to Italy to study painting. Then I went back as an au pair the next year—still making art, still avoiding the inevitable return to the U.S. and “real life.” Eventually, I did go back, got my master’s in Art Education, and finally earned my teaching license.
And I didn’t come back alone—I brought a very special Italian souvenir with me: my now husband.
Over the years, teaching had its fair share of highs and lows. But juggling parenting solo while Gianni works out of the country for about half the year—after long, draining school days slowly wore me down. Right before the pandemic hit, I took an unpaid leave of absence. My family and I moved to Italy for six months, enrolled the girls in school, and I started making art for myself again.
When we returned, I was back to teaching—remotely, and also teaching my own kids at home. It was exhausting, lonely, and at times, rather soul-sucking. In those long stretches between classes, in a huge, empty art room, I started painting patterns. Repetitive lines. Using every color I had. And I haven’t stopped since.
Now, I’ve officially stepped away from the classroom to follow my creativity and explore my purpose beyond teaching.
