View Irene's website  "With all beings and all things we shall be as relatives"-Sioux Indian  {from The Family of Man} I have had the privilege of traveling to many parts of the world. I have traveled to remote areas that most people have not had the opportunity to see up close.   At that particular time in my life I loved photography.  I was particularly drawn to people and their activities.  Their beautiful faces, postures and costumes. Village life and city life and particularly the children.  I was very discreet and took mostly candid  shots.  I wanted to capture people participating in their everyday life. Around 1993 I became interest in painting.  I started taking classes at a community college in Phoenix and then attended classes and workshops at the Scottsdale Artist School.  Again, I was drawn back to the photos I had taken over the years. As a painter I want to portray the lifestyles of ordinary people doing ordinary things.  In todays society our world has become smaller and more complex.  We see things through the eyes of politicians, good and bad leaders, and the complexity of politics and wars going on all over the world.  We are bombarded by picture over our television and the internet. Voices over or radios and photos' in our papers' "the good, bad and ugly". As our world becomes smaller and more homogenized, those unique societies will become obsolete.  Old tool will become mechanized and technology will takes over. Old customs will be discarded. Western customs and habits will become the norm.  All will be lost. This is happening at a very fast pace. Since recorded time, artist have documented these images.  These artistic images recorded societies they lived in or travel trough. I am committed to preserve my own images, my memories and my observation by putting them on canvas with oils and on paper with oil pastels.  I will do this with respect and love for all the people I have met during my own travels.   I will also have the joy of reliving those special moments.