About the Artist

     When I was 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 career was being a high school biology teacher, which I enjoyed for 32 years.  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.