I went to BYU after graduation, and completed most of my course work before taking a break from school to run a freelance calligraphy and commercial art business.
I went to England in 1981 with my family. My Dad was one of the directors of a BYU student group there. We were able to visit Eastern Europe and the USSR during that time. When we returned, my Dad started a non-profit organization called Food For Poland. I worked with him in that organization. We gathered donated foods and goods and sent them to the Solidarity Union in Poland to help them resist communist martial law. I have been able to return to England and Europe many times since then, helping to teach art to BYU and Uof U student groups, and traveling with my kids and husband when he did contract work there.
I met my husband, Mike Hansen at BYU. We married in 1984 and both graduated in 1987. Since then, we have lived in Davis County, first in Layton in a 100 year old Victorian house that we restored over a period of 13 years. The last six years, we have lived in Farmington. My two daughters have attended and graduated from Davis High School, and it has been fun to see the different experiences and benefits they have received from that experience. My oldest, Charlotte, is the only one who knows all the words to the school song because she performed in the choir at graduation. We have three children. Charlotte, is 20 and attends the U of U. She was a performance piano major, and is now an English major. Anna is 18 and just graduated from Davis. She will be attending the U of U. She is thinking of majoring in Art. , My son Joseph is 14, will be in the 10th grade next year, was a western states swim champion, but doesn't compete in swimming right now, loves playing lead guitar in his band, and he grew over 9 inches taller last year. He is now 6 feet tall. All three kids have been in competitive swimming since they were in elementary school, so Mike and I have spent a lot of time helping run swim meets for almost 10 years now. This is the first summer in a long time we are not planning vacations around championship swim meets. The smell or chlorine in our car is beginning to diminish.
I have developed and taught art classes to all age groups for over 20 years. I have specifically worked to develop a curriculum for teaching creativity through all subjects. I have presented this curriculum t teachers in a number of schools along the Wasatch Front, encouraging them to recognize that everyone is creative, and will express this creativity through any number of ways, with words, visual art, computer programs, time, space, relationships, sports. They can help their students to continue to recognize their own creativity and continue to use it in any subject or profession. I think if people recognize their own creativity, they will see they can create solutions to problems that may have never been considered before. It may be the only way that history will stop repeating itself. This year I started a non-profit called Art For Life. It raised funds for service organizations through art and creativity classes. In April my daughter Anna, and I raised funds for HELP-International. It has ongoing service projects in Central America and Africa. Anna was a volunteer in El Salvador with them last summer.
Mike has worked in several jobs as an electrical engineer. He has been in marketing management for the last 5 years with Rockwell Automation. He has just been promoted and transferred to a position in the Denver area. We will be moving there this summer. We are hoping this will lead to a position in Belgium in a couple of years. We are excited to explore the other side of the Rocky Mountains. Mike and I are now training to do a century bike race on a tandem bike. We are having a great time and creating a new future together every day.