What Started it All

Hmong II, 30"x30", acrylic on canvas

Hmong I, 30"x30", acrylic on canvas

Hmong III, 30"x30", acrylic on canvas

In 2010 one of my daughters-in-law asked me to paint something for her walls.  Her ethnicity is Hmong. The Hmong subgroup she belongs to come from the hills of Laos, located in SE Asia. Not being a painter, I asked her to give me symbols of her culture thinking that would be easy enough.
 
To make a long story short, she gave me images of the tapestry her culture used in which certain symbols were repeated.
 
My sister, an artist, showed me how to use a sponge with acrylic paints to make the canvas look like cloth. I painted three canvases using that technique and copied the images my daughter-in-law had given to me onto the canvases. My son and his wife loved them.
 
Even though, I had only copied images for those three paintings, the process and the result intrigued me and thus began my art career.
 
I was so excited I bought enough art materials to supply a small art store. I took a few courses and watched art DVDs and YouTube videos each night until I fell asleep. I was really excited!
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