Thank you for coming by to visit Mountain Lion Arts, a gift shop with unique hand made gifts from the Sierras and the Great Basin Desert.
Here is a little bit about how and why I do what I do:
As a child, my love for creating was unstoppable, from crayon drawings to white glue fingernails to paper pretend makeup the had movable pieces designed using colored pencils. I loved drawing, cartooning, and stringing Native American glass beads on elastic, then wearing a dozen at a time, and I loved making "home made cards" for everyone. I enjoyed symbols and the deeper meaning that they held, and researching ancient traditions.
I took these dreams and went to college, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a ceramics major. I am an eternal student with a continuum of supplemental classes in pearl and bead stringing, veil painting, and more.
Today, I work as a multi-media artist, still passionate about creating beadwork, I consider it stringing and assembling colorful wearable art, inspired from Native American traditions. The feel of strands of tiny glass beads as they run through my fingers is scrumptious and and the endless choices of colors today are delightful.
Painting to me is blissful, as I watch colors spread and burst into shapes across paper. I am inspired by the beauty of nature and really enjoy the process of paint on paper, becoming a story that becomes a print or card.
My hand made clay pieces come from a love of earth mixed with all of the elements that form something beautiful that is also usable and functional.
I am a spiritual artist, with ideas often coming through meditation, and I see the process of creating, as a sacred space. I see beauty, and color and texture as healing to us all.
It is with great joy that I share these unique handmade gifts. Every picture, color choice, pattern, shape, texture, and gemstone is placed with care and as an offering.
Perhaps you will see a piece that tells a story to you.