The Little Watercolor with the Long Story

I've had a lot of people ask how a girl born and raised in southern California ended up at The Savannah College of Art and Design. My life was forever changed by this watercolor I did my senior year in high school.


My art teacher was collecting our submissions for the Scholastic Art Awards. She discouraged me from entering this piece as she felt a true watercolor should have more white of the paper showing. (To her credit, she had a valid point.) I thought it was one of my stronger pieces, so she relented. It went on to win the Kodak Award for Best Watercolor in Los Angeles County. From there it went to the national competition in New York. While it didn't win anything there, a scout from SCAD saw the piece and offered me a partial scholarship. I went on to graduate from SCAD, meet my husband (of now 18 years), live in the south for a decade, and even name my daughter, Savannah - all because of 1 little painting.

We all make decisions in life that can forever change our course. I have something very tangible to mark my life altering path change.