“The Art Center and I go back to the 80s, in the 1ST Avenue building. My beginner art efforts hung on those walls, as awkward as that felt, my work and I were valued. “Then, students learned my printmaking tricks-of-the-trade in classes. Kids and I had big fun in my Sizzlin’ Saturdays and Summer Art Camps, too. “The Arts Center cheered me on as I buckled down and revisited school, after a 20-year sabbatical flying to far places in fast machines, as an international “stew”. I earned my BA in Eckerd College’s PEL Program and MFA at USF. As adjunct professor, I now teach where I learned, and, make art in my ArtLofts studio. “But as the Morean Arts Center’s preparator, my finest satisfaction rests. I’ve banged nails, lo these many, then with Director Dee Dewberry, now, with Exhibitions Curator, Amanda Cooper. My joy is in helping make her curatorial smarts shine.”