Celeste’s art education began with figure drawing and art classes in early adulthood. Then, after a long career in medicine, she began pursuing in earnest her dual loves of painting and poetry. Teachers like artists Victoria Kwansinski, Judith Cassel-Mamet, and Louise Fletcher helped shape a desire to experiment and play with materials, expand her repertoire, learn by doing the work. Since 2023, she has been working with artist and mentor, Marianne Mitchell, to refine her artistic sensibilities and realize her artist vision.

The Artist

As a child, she began writing plays, newspaper articles and stories. In adulthood, Celeste wrote professional articles, essays, and poems. But it was a 2019 class with poet, teacher, and mentor Radha Marcum that transformed her writing practice into a commitment to study and write poetry.
She began to publish her work in poetry journals in 2023, and never looked back.

The Poet

The most important aspect about creating a work of art or a poem is the emotional interchange between me and the work. Drawn to the concept of interconnectedness of all life, my current works in both art and poetry include a range of conversations with the natural world, transformational events, and enlightening moments that inspire and awe. Everything I create is infused with my energy, both physical and emotional.

My poetry uses words, concrete imagery, sound and rhythm to evoke responses from the reader or listener. In contrast, my visual art relies on nonverbal communication with the viewer to elicit emotional, intellectual or even physical responses. I never get tired or bored of the opportunities to create stories and invite others into my dual worlds.

Personal Thoughts

Bio

Celeste spent her childhood in Arizona, attended university and taught school in Colorado, obtained her medical degree and raised her children in Ohio, worked as a physician in Montana, and now lives in southwest Florida. She draws on her lifelong interest in world mythologies and eastern ideologies as well as the experiences of living in mountain, prairie, desert, and water environments to inform her writing and visual art. She began exhibiting art locally in 2023, and has won awards for her paintings.