My Journey as an Artist
I was born Catherine Alice Carlson in Los Angeles 1955, spending my early years growing up in West Hollywood which afforded me early exposure to art and music.I learned early on that I loved to create, from mud pies to rubber bugs with my "Thing Maker, I found great joy in making things!
I attended public, then private Catholic School there, until moving to the San Fernando Valley with my family in 1966. In junior high I discovered my love of sculpting in clay, and high school brought my first lessons in jewelry arts and trying my hand at wax carving. After high school, wanderlust found me traveling to, and ultimately living in Anchorage, Alaska. I worked for Alyeska Pipeline in town, doing several different jobs within their organization, switch board operator, print shop, mail room, but found I needed to pursue my artist direction, so I quit.
As luck would have it, I stopped by a jewelry store to see if I could get a piece of jewelry I had made in high school repaired. When I told them I had made the piece, they offered me a job, and so began my employment at Nick Begich Jr. Jewelers.
From this I was mentored by several very talented artists and crafts people who helped to expand my knowledge and abilities in even more art forms, such as scrimshaw and lapidary work. I stayed there until they closed for good in 1977. From there I decided to further expand my knowledge by returning to Southern California in the fall of that year and began a course of study at GIA to become a Graduate Gemologist, graduating 6 months later 2nd in my class.
Not having a job to return to in Alaska, and wanting to put my new skills to use, I applied for a job at GIA's Diamond Grading / Gem Identification, and was hired to begin in September 1978. I worked there for a little over two years, but left in December 1980 to get ready to be a mom. I stayed at home, raising two children and doing wax carving work on the side. When GIA decided to move their campus and grading lab to Carlsbad, our family had the opportunity to relocate to a vibrant artist beach community. It was just the dose of creative energy I needed after living 11 years in Granada Hills, 3 years in the high dessert community of Acton, and the 1994 Northridge Earth Quake aftermath, I felt the need for the change. After settling in to a charming small home in Encinitas, I began to take ceramics at the local high school night classes, and acquainted myself with more of the local art community.
In the early 2000's my marriage was coming to an end and I needed to try and find work suited to my abilities. I also found myself in need of someone to do my casting for me since I could no longer do it myself. Good fortune smiled upon me, and I found Dan Johnson at Timberline Wax Patterns. Dan hired me to do production wax shooting, and from there I further refined my skills, and took on challenging custom wax carving for clients.