BILLIE HOWD

I can remember as a little girl spending hours drawing trees and designing doll clothes. Music would take me to places I could see and feel only in my mind. Art and music helped me to escape everyday existence, to see life and the world around me from a different plane.

Making art is a very personal outlet for me. I am, in many ways, a very shy person. I find it much easier to say what I need to say with my hands, with a paintbrush and with paint than with words. My voice is in my hands.

I often paint women -- seeing aspects of myself in them and aspects of them in me. When I render a painting, I gain understanding of who I am, who I was, who I will be. I am connected with my subjects and together we create a visual voice.