About the Artist

When I was around 35 years old, we needed a custom-sized tray for the ottoman my family purchased for our living room. I liked the idea of mosaic tile trays, but did not have the supplies to create one. I did have wood, a band saw, a belt sander, paint supplies, Plexiglas, and glue. So, it made perfect sense to me to use all that to create a wooden mosaic tray with exactly the colors I wanted. I have always been good at creating things out of random pieces of stuff- tinkering, as I like to call it. That tray was the beginning of Practical Pieces, my hobby business. My full-time job is being a high school biology teacher, and I have been doing that for a long time. But, Practical Pieces took the right side of my brain to a whole new level. I now feel that a part of me is missing when I am not creating artwork on a regular basis.