I started my shop to have a place to sell my creative items without locally paying 50% of my profits to consignment fees. It is hard to make an art item then have the store you sell it in, take half of the profit from it. Artists have to make a living, too!

Part of my college days were spent at Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico, where I learned about Day of the Dead and how families honor their deceased family members. I loved the colorful, dressed-up skeleton statues, the sugar skull candies, and just everything about their national holiday.

I didnt discover that I was hispanic until I got to Spanish class at The Ohio State University where I was majoring in journalism. My Great Grandfather was from Barcelona, and I suspect that we were Catalonian. He was sent to Cuba to run a province, sort of like a governor, in the middle 1800's, before Castro, when Spain owned Cuba.

My Grandfather was born there and was sent here to Ohio to go to the university, where he met my Grandmother, a little farm girl from southern Ohio. It was quite unusual for a girl to go to college in those days--especially a farm girl. She was fluent in Spanish and fell in love with the "handsome Spaniard". Grandma was an artist--a painter, and I think that is where my art talent comes from.

I have always been attracted to very bright, happy colors and people say its my "Spanish blood" coming through...so I have decided to concentrate on making art with bright colors. Someone else can do the beiges and earth colors. I dont dislike them...they just arent ME!

I pride myself on making art that is well-crafted, looks good, and is "finished". A lot of things I see in craft shows just do not have a finished look to them (and yes, even primitive works should be finished). I have pride of craftswomanship and I have gotten a lot of feedback about how nice my artwork is, how finished it looks, and how neat and tidy it is.

Never having had a complaint from any of my Etsy customers, everyone says how fast they receive the artwork. I guess some artists dont have shipping-ready products and are slow to ship them. Not me!

Customers are welcome to send me suggestions as to what they would like to see in my shop. I like to make products that make people smile or laugh out loud. Im an art-crazy senior loving my 2nd career, and want to share it with everyone.