"I find that the most difficult part of being an artist is describing myself. I have always been a creative person. When I was a child I dressed my dolls in scarves, posed them in the garden and pretended to photograph them with tubes from our toilet paper. When I played school, I was the art teacher and I would set up pretty objects and flowers to make still life drawings. I was twelve when my parents gave me my first set of oil paints. I would disappear into my room for days and paint.
"After high school I went to Paris to study art. That is when I discovered a love I have never lost. Travel became a passion, and history something I began absorbing automatically, especially the history of art and architecture. Over the last forty years I have traveled extensively, concentrating mostly on Italy, France and Spain. I can talk for hours about the places I have been and the things I have seen. Besides the gift of creativity, I was given a wonderful ability to remember.
"I like to play with color and line. Light fascinates me. Capturing contours and motion intrigues me. I like to explore different mediums and to play with textures. I studied drawing, painting, photography, printmaking and ceramics. I learned to sew when I was a Girl Scout. At one time I made pictures out of fabrics, stitching, weaving and pasting until I had the image I wanted. Today my favored mediums are oil paint, chalk and pencils.
"I consider food and entertaining to be another art medium. With an Italian Grandmother, I learned early that love is passed out around a table, that talk and laughter at the table is as nurturing as the food. I love to surround myself with friends and family to play. I love to serve a delicious meal and to make a plate look like a work of art. I love to create elaborate invitations, have parties, and provide music and food to warm people's souls.
"To me, being an artist means applying creativity to all the things in my life. I believe that life should be lived beautifully, that everything I do should be done artfully."
— Carolyn Costa
