I moved to Maine in 2001, from the Washington, DC, area. After a long career as a speech-language pathologist, I went to work for the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine, as education director and grants writer.

When I retired in 2013, I happened upon an art class emphasizing color theory, and it opened up a whole new world: oil painting. Having never painted before, it quickly became a passion. Now I continue to take classes and have had a number of individual and group shows. Best of all, I've made new friends and had many new experiences. The most exciting thing about becoming a painter is learning to see the world in such an enhanced way.