I have done many different jobs in my short life.  I have been a babysitter, teacher, cashier, cook, writer, answering service girl, pizza delivery driver, volunteer for many organizations, tour guide, the girl who serves you coffee and donuts at 3 a.m. at Mister Donut, KeyMaster for the Arsenal, tarot reader, court reporter, and probably a few more things, too, but I can't remember anymore right now. In 2005, I was appointed executive director for the Arts Council of Beaufort County and in the fall of 2006, I retired from that job to marry Vance and live in Summerville, SC.  Just a few weeks later, he announced we're moving to California. So here I am.

I've been to college many times over the years, but never really took any art classes. They always want to ruin art for me - "No, no.  What Matisse was really saying in this piece is.... blah, blah, blah."  "So why did you make this particular chair blue and this one green?"  "You're not supposed to paint the same subject over and over and over in the same way."  Hrumph. Not for me. The full extent of my formal art training is what little bit I gleaned from an art teacher named Peggy DiNegro in middle school. When I want to create something, I just figure out how to make it work.

I don't care to dig into the deeper meaning of my art. Benton Lutz asked me one day where my ideas spring from. I told him I wasn't sure. Upon thinking about it, I'm still not sure. I have a feeling it's from somewhere deep on the backside of my brain.  I've never cared much for symbolism and like to put exactly what I'm interested in and thinking about on my paintings. My current art is simple, usually encompassing one object per panel. This style, I'm fairly certain, comes from a need and desire for simplicity in my thoughts, but again, if some real art person analyzed it, I would probably be told that isn't the reason at all my art is like it is. I'll leave it up to the viewer to decide.

When I'm not busy doing art stuff like actually painting things, I can be found scouring my sources for exotic hats, listening to Van Morrison, shuffling the stepchildren from here to there, watching the cats stalk for birds in the yard, flouncing about in a boa, shopping at Raley's, promoting the arts of Yuba-Sutter, cruising in the Checker, riding in my Redillis, documenting the archives of the Mary Aaron Museum, or just lounging around in the hammock.

I think that's about it for a bio right now, but if you're curious about anything else, feel free to send an email to lily at onlinelily.com