Born and raised in a small farming community in Manitoba, I moved to Edmonton, Alberta shortly after graduating high school in 2001.  Having a love for both children and art, I completed a Bachelor Degree in Education and a minor in Fine Arts.  With few teaching positions available at the time and a mounting student debt, I went to work in the oil and gas industry.  I worked several years pipelining ironically still holding a paint brush but coating pipe not canvas.  

   

To further my education in this field I went to the US to complete the Coating Inspection program at the National Association of Corrosion Engineering.  I continued to work oil/gas pipelines for the next 8 years from BC to Manitoba.  

 

Throughout these years I have had the opportunity to live/volunteer in an orphanage in Nepal, hike the Himalayas, boat down the Nile river in Egypt, and explore Petra, Jordan, Iceland and several European countries.  My greatest accomplishment came in the summer of 2014 – having a baby boy Finley Raen.  It has been in the past year raising him that has inspired me to paint again and plant some roots here in Sylvan Lake.