Anita grew up in the San Francisco bay area and graduated from Holy Names University with a BA in art in 1979. From there, she relocated to Los Angeles to pursue her art career as a Disney artist. That dream was never to become a reality. She supported herself as a grocery clerk while freelancing as an artist doing holiday window painting, sets for theater productions, painting portraits, designing logos, sign painting and even camera work for public access television. Considering herself a California girl, Anita has also lived in Georgia and Ohio. In 1989, she married Andrew and together they raised three sons. In 2000, Anita was given the opportunity through a local newspaper in the Sacramento area, to illustrate a fire safety book entitled, "The American Home is a Firetrap" by Richard M. Patton. This experience eventually lead to illustrating children's books for Nightengale Press. Illustrating books has been her main passion ever since and her next big goal is to author and illustrate her own children's book which is currently in the works. Anita currently lives in the Seattle, Washington area with Andrew and their sons Wes, Greg and Brad.
Ever since I could hold a crayon, I have loved to draw. I didn't realize I had a knack for it until first grade when the teacher hung my folder in front of the class because she thought the artwork on it was the best. From that small bit of inspiration, I was off and running. I won several coloring contests as a kid including winning 2 ten-speed bicycles from McDonald's. That just fueled the fire. In high school I dabbled in sculpting, woodworking, batik and my favorite - pencil drawing. In College, I took jewelry making, calligraphy, lithography, life drawing and oil painting. I was often discouraged by my art professors who told me there was really no way to make it in life as a fine artist unless I taught art. I was determined to prove them wrong. I realized immediately after graduating that the world was changing and unless I had graphic art experience, there really wasn't much of a living I could make. Computers were becoming all the rage and the digital world was overtaking the fine art world. But being the optimist I am, I realized that everywhere one looks, if it's not God's handiwork they see, it is the beauty created by simple artists like myself. I knew that no matter how many artists are around, there would always be room for one more!
Now, it seems that I am continuously working on one art project or another and have no problem keeping busy thanks to the artistic talent God blessed me with...sometimes too busy. One thing I can say about true artists, is that we are artists in our souls and are not happy unless we are creating something ...anything. One of the most exciting things for me is to gaze upon a fresh, white canvas imagining all the possibilities it can become and it will be unique to me and a part of myself I can share with the world and leave after I'm long gone.
