The Redding, California, chapter the American Association of University Women (AAUW) hosted me in September 2024 as the speaker for their annual dinner meeting. The original invitation was for me to talk about my artwork, but on further thought, I realized that in order to talk about my artwork, I first need to explain how I look at the world. And that’s tied to my coming up in the world as a left-brained person, and as an engineer.

Knowing that AAUW advocates for STEM education for girls, I thought it’d also be interesting to talk about my experience becoming and working as an engineer over some 40+ years. And in the process of preparing for this talk, I learned more about how educators are starting to advocate for building “art” into traditional STEM learning to result in a more well-rounded student/professional – the relatively “new” term “STEAM” that builds on “STEM.” “A” is intended to bring into STEM important careers skills around verbal communications, visualization, and effective presentation of ideas – something I think women are particularly effective at bringing to the table in the technical professions. And, yes, I talked about my artwork – how I’ve arrived at creating my “left-brained art.”