About The Artist

Hilarie started to draw at the age of two, drawing faces that resembled Keenes' sad eye kids, ballet dancers and horses. Her love of art continued and eventually, she entered college as a fashion design and medical illustration major. She attended briefly to discover that the classes for her major had nothing to do with art. She left school, hitchhiked out to San Francisco to draw portraits on the streets. With virtually no formal art training, she was able to survive by selling her portraits and travelled around the country doing that a few years. She met a hairdresser and traded a haircut for a pastel portrait. She convinced her to go to beauty school to get a "real" job. Hilarie abandoned her drawing skills completely for over thirty years. At age 55, Hilarie went back to college and got a degree in historic preservation which led her back to her artistic path. One class required her to paint a mural that won an award and was the start of her career as an artist.