CYNTHIA’S STORY
Born and raised in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I always carried a restless curiosity about the world beyond. At eighteen — with a one-way ticket, a blue vinyl Samsonite suitcase, and $200 in babysitting money — I boarded my first-ever flight and headed west.
San Diego became and remained my home for over thirty years. Through career, marriage, divorce, and all the lessons in between — love, loss, breakdowns, and breakthroughs — I was learning how to live. Those life chapters, and what would come after, became the quiet roots of my creative expression.
Decades later, that same curiosity led me on another cross-country move — this time to the Deep South. Everything felt unfamiliar: the accents, the streets, even the air. In the disorientation, I searched for a way to process the discomfort and ground myself in something true.
Though I’d explored many creative outlets, it was painting that met me most fully in this season of transition. I had no formal training — only the willingness to be present, to stay open, and to let something move through me. What began as exploration became something deeper: a language for what words couldn’t hold. A practice. A lifeline. A return to self.
Art didn’t just help me express — it helped me heal. It gave shape to what I was feeling, even when I didn’t yet understand it. That’s the heart of what would become The Blank Canvas Experience — a space where creativity becomes a mirror, a medicine, and a way home to yourself.
These days, I continue to follow life’s curiosities between Charlotte, North Carolina, and the wide-open landscapes of Northern Arizona — always listening for what wants to be expressed next.