I've been in love with drawing since I can remember. As I carry on with daily activities, I continue to study details/movement/color in that around me. Engaging in conversation, I might completely drift off into my own world/conversation as I study the brilliant yellow that sweeps across your nose, or the green that splashes below your chin. And so it is through the process of creating that which I see that my spirit is but calm (if only for a moment).
Alright, I suppose there is more...
I was born in Sisseton, SD (a reservation in the northeast corner of South Dakota). My Father is a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, and a contractor. Usually an individual is reminded of their past by something like ‘the smell of lilacs’ or ‘Mom cooking in the kitchen.’ I however, reflect on my childhood whenever I get a strong whiff of diesel fuel, pass a construction site filled with scrapers, or look out my window to see a motor grader run by in the winter.
I grew up watching my Father run his company. His crews traveled around the state of South Dakota doing grading and putting in culverts for state and federal highways. But, once I had graduated high school I no longer had to watch from a distance. Immediately my Father put me to work pulling a sheepsfoot on the site of a new dam. After that project was complete, he moved me to the Missouri River where I ran a 980 loader (dropping riprap along the water’s edge). I finished off that construction season operating a 14H blade (motor grader) on the berm of a lagoon near Wagner, SD.
I loved traveling with the crew from one town to another. There was always something about each region that I could enjoy, whether it was the small towns and their beautiful old stone buildings, or the scenery to and from the jobsite in the morning and at night.
After that construction season my Mother convinced my Father that being an equipment operator was not fitting for their nineteen year old daughter. I was disheartened to learn that my Father had filled my position the following spring at my Mother’s request. So, my career as an operator was cut short, and my part in his company would then play out behind a desk.
Other than my affairs in Father’s business, there are (of course) aspirations of mine which also help define my character. First, I am a mother of two beautiful children, who are of the ages ten and eight. I have spent a great amount of time educating my children in wisdom and in knowledge. Their security and development are of utmost importance to me and weigh heavily on all that I do.
My second aspiration I wish to mention is my love ‘to paint.’ Since the age of four I carried notebooks everywhere, drawing one thing after another with hope upon hope that one day I might paint. Eventually that hope came to fruition, and the thrill of it was more than I had anticipated.
The last joy of mine [I do not mention last because it is my least driven infatuation] but rather I mention last because it should (if not) be that which excites me the most. I have a real hunger for theology, the study of God in the word and in nature. From this I find encouragement, hope and meaning that I can apply to my life. These three attributes grant me the strength I need to move forward when I think I can’t take another step.
