Lois’s portrait is stretched on a frame I made myself—in fact, it was the first stretcher frame I had made in years.  I learned from James Thompson how to build them when I was in school.  Then, as I began to paint for a living, my father, an engineer by trade and a carpenter in his heart of hearts, took on the task of building my stretcher frames.  In 2006, I relieved him of this duty when I decided that I wanted to be more flexible about the sizes of my paintings.  I am still grateful for the years of technical work that my father put into my paintings. 

I am lucky in that both of my parents are supportive of my choice to be a painter.  My mother took on bag-sewing duty in 2007.