Artist Dawn Marie Tipton and Kurt Allen

 Dawn Marie Tipton;  I was born and raised in Michigan.  Growing up I spent a great amount of time at our family lake house and acquired a passion for the water. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood are, getting up early, to walk down to the calm, peaceful lake and see the sun glisten off the water.  I lived in Michigan until the early 90's.  I now reside near the Great Smokey Mountains. 
  I've been paintings since I was a little girl. My mother recalls me standing in front of an easel as young as the age of 5.  I follow my heart and do what comes natural.  I have a great passion to paint.  It's almost like an internal healing process for me.  It calms my life and make me who I am. I have a  love for re-creating, turning something old into something with new meaning.  I love the look of distressed shabby chic and mixed modern with old antique.  My mind constantly runs with new ideas, my problem; I don't have enough time to create them all. I'm always thinking outside of the box.  I guess to most people, they see junk or think to throw the items away, But me,
I see "What creative can I do with this."     
I guess you could call us " Sophisticated Junkies "

Most of my canvas paintings appear without a story but there's usually hidded meanings in them. Occasionally I'll inlay devotional verses and prayers. My feeling on art "An expression of who we are and how we perceive the world." Everyone sees something different. I believe this is what makes us different in our own way
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Kurt Allen; I was born and raised in North Carolina, with strong southern roots. My parents have taught me many things, one of which "Stand for what you believe and Value the people you love."
I guess this is where my southern roots run strong. I was raised in a moderate home with an eye for nice things. I also love mixing modern with old distressed.   I knew, like so many other artist at a young age I could expressed myself on paper.  I loved to draw; taking classes to challenge my artistic side. 
I love history, especially civil war artifacts and the many stories behind antiques. Over the years I've taken the things I love and fufilled the passion within myself to create. 
Together we love to browse, shop, and find what we call treasures, "Trash to Treasure"  We enjoy the simple things best. Kurt and Dawn Marie share many things in common, their passion for life being #1.