Personal History:

Who am I? How did I get here? Where am I going?

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, I was born in the city of the Queen of the Angels known to most people as Los Angeles, California. Angels live near stars. In Los Angeles, some stars reside in the heavens. Others reside on the silver screen or on the stage. It was the stage that attracted my earliest interest. So from the time I was able to say shuffle ball change, I chose to make my mark on the world as a tap dancer. My thoughts would reach others through messages sent and received by means of my feet.

From grammar school to college, tap shoes were my most important means of communication. Dancers use words to record rhythms and routines on paper in much the same way that writers use words to give permanent form to their ideas. However, I had no intention of becoming a teacher of English. I was going to be a Broadway star even though teachers, then and now, have a better chance of earning a livelihood with a red pen in their grasp than they do with a split-soul pair of tap shoes-complete with a boxed apparatus for doing toe stands-on their feet.

Shuffling off to U.C.L.A. and dividing my time between dancing and acting and reading and writing, I picked up some educational hallmarks from the University of California at Los Angeles along the way:

  • a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, in Cinematography in 1959.
  • a Master of Arts degree in English in 1964
  • a California Junior College Lifetime Credential in 1964.

Putting my tap shoes on hold while implementing a teaching career in the field of higher education and trying my hand at becoming a wife and a mother, I came back full circle to a need to put the visual and performing arts at the top of my roster of interests.

So once again, I became a student. Only this time, my tools were paintbrushes, colors, and brilliantly colored threads. I added more academic titles to my repertoire.

  • an Associate of Arts degree in Art from De Anza College in Cupertino, California in 1987.
  • a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with Great Distinction in Art (Painting) from San Jose State University in San Jose, California in 1989.
  • a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiber and Mixed Media Art from John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, California in 1995.
  • and a Master of Arts degree in Art History from San Jose State University in San Jose, California in 1996.
Dusting off my tap shoes, I went back to my first vocational objective which was to dance my way through life whenever I can.
And now, I have reached another plateau by studying Web site development and management from my favorite Webmaster Mike Hoffhines at Maui Community College, Hawaii.
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