My family time at the Texas coast influences many of my paintings. A story of a fish pulled from the ocean and the sparkling colors and textures that appear in the scales, or the unexpected change of colors in a palm frond as it is caught in the gusty Texas breeze are the new tales I try to express on this rough paper surface. One of my favorite sayings is, “Life is about the messy bits.” Well, that’s what pastel painting is to me—learning and creating with the messy bits in my box of beautiful colors.