Raised on the small dairy farm in Randall, Minnesota that my great-grandfather established when he emigrated from Sweden in the late 1800’s, I grew up surrounded by field and pasture, woods and swamp—all ripe for exploration and inspiration. I discovered my love of wildflowers at age eleven when we braved the mosquitoes and water-logged cattails to see the showy lady’s slippers in the popple island in the middle of the swamp. While I have been photographing wildflowers since that day, after college I transitioned to drawing them in colored pencil as well. It wasn’t until the ladies of my prayer group encouraged me that I began pursuing colored pencil art as a profession. Minnesota nature and farm life—with a nod to my family’s Swedish heritage—have provided much of my inspiration.