If you don’t personally know me, here’s a little bit about my story.

My name is Meredith Parnell, and I was bitten by a radioactive spider.

Okay, not really. But now that I have you -

I grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and always wanted to be an artist. My first dream was to become an animator, but when that didn’t quite pan out, I knew I still wanted to find a life somewhere in the arts.

As a kid, I took very traditional drawing lessons, studying value, shape, form, and anatomy. My teacher had me sketch my way through the skeleton and study muscle form so I could understand what was happening underneath the surface. I was obsessed. I’d sit in class sketching my own hand instead of listening to the lesson. I kept drawing through college, but eventually I stopped.

I didn’t really stop creating, though. I just found other ways to do it. I built a career editing films and commercials, became a photographer, baked macarons, and decorated way too elaborate cookies. I even started a small business on Etsy that has sold almost 80,000 custom cookie cutters that I design and make in my garage workshop.

I then found a love in oils. Creating art is not a choice, but a way of life for me.