I was born in Watseka, Illinois, which was, also, where I choose to teach for thirty-nine years. I both attended and taught in the same school, Watseka Community High School. I graduated from Donovan High School in 1962, obtained my Bachelor‟s Degree (1965) and Master‟s Degree (1973) from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. Eventually, I finished another forty-five hours of graduate classes.
I married Ronald Scharf in 1965. Our first son Jeffrey was born in 1967 and died in 1977 as a result of a medical error. Our second son Jonathan was born in 1971 and now works for the State of Colorado as an Administrative Reviewer. Jonathan is the father of Grace who is presently in the public school in the Grand Valley. Ron died in 2003; my brother Mark died just a few weeks later. My brother Steve lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he works as a school psychologist as well as a writer of songs and books. Bernard and Margaret Johnson, my parents, live in Watseka, Illinois, where they retired after a lifetime of farming.
After almost four decades of teaching, I retired and moved from our country home into a small condo in Watseka. I live in the Midwest during the springs and summers and in Western Colorado during the summers and winters. I travel back and forth along with Misty Purr-Sigh, my cat. I enjoy traveling, reading, embroidering, watching a few television shows and many movies, visiting with friends and family, and thinking.
I hope that you enjoy your journey through life which I have found to be a comedic/tragic/ beautiful adventure.
I intend to just keep loving.
I hope you do the same.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ARTIST
I was born in Evanston Wyoming in 1983. The low populations of Wyoming and the surrounding immense expanses of open land directly influenced my personality, ambitions, and aesthetics.
I created the images in this book at different points throughout my college career. Anne and I chose the images based on conceptual connections to the content of her book or, because of the autobiographical nature of her writing, we chose them simply because they appeal to her.
My aunt and I share a great deal of likeness in our understandings. Where-as Anne in specialized in English, I am specializing in image making, but we both seek to communicate ideas that we believe can be of benefit for other as well as ourselves. I believe art should be about something more than the artist.
