Eight months after starting a night job at the Post Office, and once I had learned all the addresses in two separate zip codes (thereby passing probation while also going to school full-time in landscape horticulture), I sustained an injury that ultimately changed my life . . . Unable to get enough restful sleep as a result of being in constant pain while trying to sleep during the day, my body developed chronic fatigue.

I reluctantly dropped out of school again and was eventually diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue & Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS – also called ME, or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, at the time) and Fibromyalgia – but continued to push myself to keep working there for another seven years. What else was I going to do? It was a ‘good job’ that paid my bills . . .

However, along with the unbearable muscle stiffness and unresolvable fatigue, the most worrying part of my disease was the cognitive deficit that came along with it. Worrying that I would never be able to use the left side of my brain again, the logical conclusion was that my right brain needed to be developed. I was physically unable to do my job by this point, so I went out on Workers Comp from the PO and shortly afterwards enrolled in my first Adult Ed class of pastel landscape drawing.

One thing led to another and I found myself back in school, enrolled full-time, eventually earning three associate degrees from Santa Barbara City College, one of them in Art. My lifelong interest in snapping pictures prompted me to take some photography classes, which led me to declaring myself as a Graphic Production major – which, when things got tough, landed me a part time job at Kinko’s (temporarily in the mailroom, though, due to my previous experience at the PO but ultimately moving into the Graphic Production department).

While working at Kinko’s, it struck me that no one was maintaining the computers. So I asked my boss if he would pay for me to take a computer maintenance class. He said yes but, were I to quit within a year, the tuition would come out of my final check. And that was exactly the case when I moved to SBCC as a tutor supervisor in the Multimedia computer lab.

As my cognitive function slowly returned, my dream became to be retrained as an acupuncturist. To that end, I took classes in Human Anatomy, Physiology and Spanish (in order to better serve the Hispanic population) while I continued to work at SBCC. That dream never materialized, however, as the Postal Service denied my request for retraining and the local college of Oriental Medicine had not yet been fully accredited. This made applying for financial aid out of the question and paying for the tuition myself was way out of reach.

While working in the computer lab at City College, my piqued interest in repairing computers prompted me to enroll in a computer maintenance class – and I loved it! Soon after this, my major was Computer Information Systems, which in the end landed me a job at Santa Barbara Bank & Trust within weeks of graduating with an AS in Information Systems. This job lasted for sixteen years, until the bank was sold and virtually our whole IT Department (that had once numbered more than 100 employees) was laid off.

During my tenure at the bank, I moved to Los Alamos and began working with Catalyst for Cats, a non-profit organization that trapped, neutered and released (TNR) feral cats. Sometimes our efforts were a bit late and we would end up with a litter of kittens, which we would care for until they could be adopted. By some standards, I was a failure at this part of the job, as I ended up adopting five of the kittens – doubling my cat population over one summer!!

Meanwhile, I had also adopted my next-door neighbor’s one year old Aussie mix puppy, Spencer, who became my partner in kitty socialization. He was curious about them but very gently showed them how to interact with a big dog. One cat in particular, Beauty, was extraordinarily enamored of him and would follow him around the yard meowing at him. For that reason, we called her his ‘wife.’

After Spencer died, one of my favorite former art teachers posted on Facebook that he was offering a workshop in printmaking at a local art studio. Having not done printmaking while at City College and needing to do something to bring me out of my depression over losing my best bud, I decided to sign up for the weekend adventure. My first print was of ‘Spencer’s Ears’ and the rest, as they say, is history!

My telling all of this is to illustrate that I believe everything we do in life gets us to where we are supposed to be . . . Had I not gone to work at the PO, I would not still have many of the good friends made there.  Having sustained the injury put me on a path to self-discovery and better health. And losing Spencer led me to investigate an art medium that would not have otherwise happened.

Please check out my paintings, pastels, photographs, prints, and mixed media art. This website is a labor of love that will, most likely, always be a work in progress. Eventually the idea is to be able to sell reproductions of various artworks – but, until then, please enjoy a peak into my world of art. And, as always, any feedback is welcome and much appreciated 🤩💜