Lady Bird

One spring in the mid 90's, I had so many excess plants from the garden that I was getting heart sick of composting them. Tom’s sister, Koona Sutter,was in charge of the Oliphant Family Market and suggested I bring the plants to the market and sell them there. I scrounged pots and filled them with the plants. When I ran out of pots, I simply put them into plastic bags and loaded them all into our Volkswagen van. By the end of that first May 24 market day, I came home with $125- in cash feeling elated and so excited.

The market experience had hooked me. After working with Tom for 15 years as a carpenter, I told him I was tired of working so hard and wanted to do something different. He made the mistake of laughing at me when I said I wanted to garden. My stubborn Dutch side got in a huff and I stopped playing nicely with him as I devoted myself to gardening. I loved to grow things and now I had an excuse to keep growing. By fall, I was dividing plants for propagation and begging people to drop off empty flower pots.

You may be wondering what this has to do with my paintings. I began to notice by August each year, plant sales declined or totally fell off. I needed something to augment sales and earn my keep while Tom was still going off doing carpentry jobs. The paintings fit the bill!!!

A few years later I suggested Tom join me at Oliphant. He built an incredible covered wagon that allowed us to haul many hundreds of plants to market along with my paintings. And then we both became carneys and a travelling road show selling not only my paintings, but matching cards and page hugs ... but that is another story!

At that point I had reinvented myself at least half a dozen times. Each change brought excitement and a little fear. I kept those butterflies in my stomach in formation and  followed my heart. Each time I grew in ways I had not dreamed.