Tecu'Mish Munha'Ke

After a 26 year career in government service, chronic health conditions  progressed to the point of my no longer being able to function in my work and I had to retire on disability.  I found this both very life shattering and  freeing.  I decided to take this as an opportunity to redefine my life by trying my hand at various creative endeavors  that I found interesting.   This was a very slow and quite literally painful process . I am self-taught and  fibromyalgia flare-ups at times left me barely unable to move, but the desire kept me going.  I joined online Yahoo Art Groups and tried many different mediums:  acrylics,  mosaics, collage, soft sculpture, altered books, artist trading cards, but it is assemblage that is my true passion.  I live to take discarded and found objects and give them a new life. In putting my pieces together, I look at very different materials in very different ways that a lot of people find intriguing because it causes them to see things in a new way.   I love to take what someone has discarded and turn it into something wonderful.  From a rusty metal chunk I find in the street to a 50s lampshade I find at a yard sale, I may alter the item  or leave it  in the state I find it.  Working intuitively ,joyously and contemplatively,  I combine it with other objects  that then take on a life of their of own to create a new whole which tells a story and has a soul.  
I cannot now envision my life without my art.