One summer evening the night before Art crawl I was working deep into the night on a painting of a phoenix. I was working in the studio that I had on the lot I live on. I worked until I was dozing off and happy with what I had accomplished.  I woke to a knock on my door around 4:30 in the morning, it was the fire marshal, and he was there to tell me my livelihood was engulfed by fire, it was too far gone to save anything. I lost everything. All of my work, all of my supplies. I managed to still make it to art crawl and made it work regardless of the situation presented. After a couple of months, I decided to ask around town for a small space to rent so that I had a place to paint. I eventually went to the church. And they helped me beyond any words could express, they sent me to the new woodcarving group that had just opened up, the church-owned building. The group’s name is “Phoenix artist Group”. I found that somewhat symbolic.  I met with the Master carver, Doug Maracle. They welcomed me in as a painter and soon after asked me if I would like to carve. And of course, I dove right into the world of wood carving. I found my true passion and was blessed with the best mentor I could have ever asked for.  within the first 5 months of carving, I had completed my first piece, an owl carved on a double quarter-round of ash. It was hard, but I liked to learn that way. The second piece I did was a phoenix, I titled it “Soul on Fire”.