Artist Sue Pikal is a mostly self taught artist who has traveled the world and expressed her love of nature and the human spirit in watercolors, acrylic paintings and bas-relief carvings. Traveling with her Peace Corps family as a child she watched her grandmother photograph, sketch and create oil pastel rubbings on silk fabric. The rubbings were of ancient wooden carvings in overgrown temples in Pakistan. Sue has been sketching since the age of seven and has taken classes in the arts over the years at schools and studios in Anchorage Alaska, Arizona and Texas. In Alaska Sue painted watercolors of old Russian Orthodox churches in remote villages in the Alaskan outback. Most recent in Sue's studies are classes taken in Austin where she has now lived for twelve years with her husband and five pets. Dougherty Art School was a wonderful find for Sue where she has taken clay sculpture and bas-relief tile making classes. This experience and knowledge now provides the basis for her new creations: Handmade hand painted ceramic pendants.