My Story  

      CHILDHOOD 

     & CAREER  

        I was born in Seattle, Washington.  My father was a Navy pilot/flight trainer and an artist. My mother expressed her creativity by raising 3 beautiful children, designing and making our clothes, and creating wonderful social events wherever we lived.  While I was in elementary school, our family relocated to Southern California.  I had a wonderful childhood growing up in Tustin and Laguna Beach, where I was heavily influenced by living in the mecca of art, near the famed Laguna Beach Art Festival. 

     Earning a Bachelor's Degree in Design & Art at Cal. State University Long Beach in 1984,  I had a great career as a contract Interior Designer working with architects, planning and designing corporate headquarters, clinical medical facilities and offices.

     My specialty for 25 years was designing hospital clinical interiors - Labs, Pharmacies, Nurse Stations, Operating Rooms, Lobbies & Offices), including 20 years with furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, Inc. as a healthcare facilities designer and team leader.  Throughout my career, traveling and designing projects nationwide, I advanced to Director of Design, supervising over 100 designers nationwide.   Though I was super-focused on my 38-year career, all along I continued to sketch, draw, design and paint for my own enjoyment in my spare time. 

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          ART & LIFE    

      When I was in the 5th grade, my father, Robert Woock, taught me to draw. His passion for art fueled my artistic development over the years.  ~  Here is an example of his work:  near the end of  WWII, while still in the Navy, he drew this sketch of a wild Navy party my mother organized in 1944 for the VC41 Squadron at the Officers Club on the Navy base at Hollister, CA.  The drawing was "lost" in storage for decades.  Then in 2016, I enlarged his sketch and painted this watercolor, signing both of our names to it.   "VC41 Squadron Sat Nite Party  at Officers Club, Hollister, CA" (see painting in my archived artwork).

     For a few years, I was a fiber artist, creating my own designs, painting needlepoint canvases for sale and teaching needlework.  Then, in 1990, when my interest turned again to painting, I took art classes at Orange Coast College and Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, CA.

     In 1989, I married my sweetheart Mahlon Hawk, pro musician (www.Mahlonhawk.com) and in 2005, we moved to the Phoenix, AZ area, where, in my spare time, I really focused on honing my artistic skills at the renound Scottsdale Artists School, and finally in 2018, when I retired from my corporate design career,  I blossomed as an artist.  After winning multiple awards for my watercolor paintings in several Arizona Watercolor Association's art shows, I turned my focus to painting in oil. 

     At Scottsdale Artists School, I was influenced by watercolor portrait artist Ted Nuttall, abstract artist/colorist Dick Phillips(1933-2011 RIP), and colorist/designer Susan Diehl.  In Scottsdale, and at Denver's Art Students League, I was influenced by contemporary realist (old-masters style) oil painter Jane Jones.  I am also fascinated by the beautiful, intense, colorful paintings of  Master Artist Sergei Bongart and Russian Impressionist Nicolai Fechin.  Through study, application and passion, I developed the style and techniques that you see in my art today.

 

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Please take time to enjoy my website. 

Art is LOVE ..... Beauty, Expression, Emotion, Delicious Color, Line, Values, Details