steel magnolia

One Saturday, perusing the aisles at Home Depot with my husband, I saw something that caught my attention. Of course, not knowing what it was, I asked. A water heater stand.

For weeks, the image of the water heater stand stayed permanently etched in my mind. But not as a water heater stand; as a table. Not just a table, but a table with my art reproduced on its surface.

After much thought, I went and bought one. Months later, the first prototype was finished. "Steel Magnolia" was born. And with it, my love for repurposing and designing functional, touchable pieces of art.

doris waiting

I was looking through our family photographs and found a picture of my mother-in-law as a young woman, sitting on the steps of her front porch. I was immediately drawn to the light and shadows in the photograph, but there was something else about it that pulled me in that I could not figure out. I really wanted to capture it on canvas.

After I finished the portrait, I gave it to her as a gift.

That's when she filled in the story of the photograph which had instinctively grabbed my attention. She was waiting for a friend to pick her up that morning. The friend brought a guy whom she had never met before. The guy was the photographer. And the future father of my husband.