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I was born in Houston but my dad worked for IBM (which stands for 'I've Been Moved'), so we moved around a lot. Here's all the places I've lived (ready?):
Houston, TX; Gaithersburg, MD; Ft. Walton Beach, FL; Lenexa, KS; Newport News, VA; Manassas, VA; Middletown, RI; Lenexa, KS again; San Jose, CA; Lewisville, TX; Lake Dallas, TX; Little Elm, TX; Denton, TX...

I received a BFA in graphic design from Texas Woman's University. I started working as a co-op student at the Nortel training center in Richardson. I started out as a technical illustrator. They hired me when I graduated and I eventually became a designer and creative director. They paid for me to get my MA in graphic design (which I also got at TWU). Nortel sold off the training division to a company called Global Knowledge in 2000 and in 2002 I was laid off.

In around 2000, I had started to paint. I was taking private lessons from a man who had been a high school art teacher. I enjoyed his classes and learned a lot from him, but I was tired of being the "weird one" among his students, most of which painted bluebonnets and the like. So I took a grad painting class at TWU. When I was laid off it took me a couple of weeks to decide to go for it and get my MFA in painting.

While I was in grad school I taught a couple of classes as a GTA but didn't really enjoy it. I had this unrealistic expectation that all the students would actually WANT to be there. Ha! But I did learn a lot from that experience...

During both of my grad school experiences, I took a lot of bookmaking classes. I love books to begin with, and the process of making artist's books really appeals to me. It's a way to use my graphic design skills to create a work of art that doesn't involve any of those pesky clients.

At the end of my MFA, I started experimenting with encaustic painting. I was instantly hooked. With acrylic, I had been trying to get transparency by layering color. The encaustic allows you to play around with transparency and opacity in really fun ways.

I started teaching encaustic workshops at my studio. I really enjoy that teaching environment - students who really want to be there and learn. I end up learning something new every time I teach. I've also met some really nice people and wonderful artists.

After I graduated in December of 2004, I spent most of 2005 looking for a job in a museum or gallery. I had a lot of gallery experience from school and working with different art groups. But I couldn't find anything. So I ended up taking a job at TWU as a secretary. I had a 5-year plan to work up to being a full-time artist. At the beginning of this year, I decided that I didn't want to wait 5 years. I wanted to start now. So I quit in April. I don't really know how I'm going to do it yet, but I'm trusting the universe to help me see opportunities and act on them.

So I'm teaching encaustic and bookmaking workshops at my studio and working on getting my work into more galleries.

I'm divorced and I have a 10-year old son. I'm going to stick around this area until he goes off to college. I'd love to live somewhere pretty and that doesn't feel like you're on the surface of the sun in the summer...

www.deannawood.com
http://artistemerging.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/enchiladaplate/

Gallery representation:
Koelsch Gallery, Houston, TX
http://koelschgallery.com/

Ernden Fine Art Gallery, Provincetown, MA
http://www.erndengallery.com/index2.html

Town Center Fine Art, Watkinsville, GA
http://www.towncenterfineart.net

Kinetic Artworks, Dallas, TX
http://kineticartworks.com/

FEEL Design, Beacon, NY
http://www.feeldesigned.com/

Books, movies, music, makin' stuff.