My hometown is Dows, Iowa. A tiny town without even one red light! Wanting to see the world, I worked in Germany for two summers during college and spent a summer in Japan. My bachelor’s degree in art education was earned from Dana College in Nebraska.   Working for the Department of Defense, I taught in Iceland and the Azore Islands off the coast of Portugal.  I have taught Art in K-12. I was elected District Teacher of the Year and was a finalist for the Riverside County Teacher of the Year. 

After I retired, I renewed my love for travel. Since 2012 I have scuba dived in Australia, islands in the Caribbean and Mexico. I have also been to China, New Zealand, eastern and western Europe, cruised the Greek Islands, the Panama Canal and Glacier Bay, Alaska. 

I continued my love of learning and took art classes from David Musser, Natalie Richards, Teresa Saia, Alain Picard, Marla Baggetta, Liz Sullivan, Tony Alain, Terry Ford, Jacob Agular, Martha Kohen, Odet Smith, Stephanie Clark, and many others. The International Pastel Society Conference in New Mexico 2022 was a wonderful learning experience, and I will be attending that again in May of 2024. As I practiced, I gained more confidence and fell in love with pastels. Pastels give me freedom to make exciting marks – from sweeping bold strokes to small specks of pigment that kiss the paper. The vibrant hues express my joy of color. Mark making and overlapping of color convey emotion through my paintings and create exciting textures and new colors. I like to intensify and exaggerate the colors capturing everything from the beauty of nature’s grandeur to the simplicity of my everyday surroundings.

My favorite paintings are spontaneous and communicate the energy I see in my sources. My favorite subjects are landscapes that I create from photographs taken during my travels. I try to interpret emotions through my paintings, capturing the essence of the places I have visited.

My art has been shown and sold at the Desert Art Center in Palm Springs, and the Redlands Art Association. I won a Multi-Media Mini show award from the Redlands Art Association and have submitted my work to the International Association of Pastel Society.  36keyoung@gmail.com