About April
I was taught metal-smithing by my dad when I was in high school. He was a high school art teacher for 36 years and taught a little bit of everything….drawing, painting, photography, silk screening, pottery, mural creation and metal craft. During my childhood he was a potter in his ‘spare’ time meaning, evenings, weekends and throughout the summers.
My family spent many weekends traveling around Oregon to arts and craft fairs helping him set up his booth…carefully unpacking and setting up his pottery, taking it all down each evening, then packing it all up to do it again the next day! It was a lot of work and definitely a group effort.
We camped along the Oregon coast and throughout the Willamette Valley and I got very familiar with the life of a roving arts and craft family. We spent out time meeting other artists, looking at their wares and often my dad making at least a few trades for my mom and I at every show. She’d get jewelry, handmade soaps, toys for my brothers and of course more pottery and I’d end up with a hair wrap, some sort of lip balm, candle, etc… and of course, jewelry!
Right of Passage story
When my 13 year old approached me about wanting her nose pierced, I realized I had never once provoked the conversation... it came to her naturally.
Although the influence of my profession and my own love of piercings and adornment was at play, it was more like her inner DNA and ancient wisdom knew this was a new chapter in her life.
Of course there was never a question as to whether or not I would allow it. I knew it was a right of passage into the beginning of womanhood and adulthood. A physical metaphor for moving forward in life and doing it with confidence, beauty and courage. It felt so natural that we went immediately!
She was extremely brave, much braver than I was during my first navel piercing at 19…
Now she is wearing my art.