Destined To Become A Woman With A Very Colorful Past
I came to this work not through therapy, a doctorate, or decorating. Painting my walls with color because I longed to belong became my vehicle for self-actualization, and changed how I felt about the world. That’s how I belonged, became, and bore a life of shared dreams. That’s how I came to have a colorful past, and to bear what I know. This is how I became a Color Baggage expert, and how I bore my knowing from root to fruit.
LONGING
I grew up in Puerto Rico, riding in the back seat of my father's black Chevrolet Impala with red Naugahyde seats, watching light transform the world through chrome-lined windows. Between sunrise and sunset, I fell in love with color, beauty, and life itself. Then plans changed, and what I knew changed too.
KNOWING
Little did I know, when I moved to Oregon, light, nature, and culture would change overnight. I set out to explore these new experiences, not knowing the changes, setbacks, and mistakes would beeline me back to my knowing and help me find my way toward the future.
BELONGING
When my first daughter was born, everything changed. She was the homecoming I'd been waiting for all my life. Soon after, her sister arrived, and motherhood transformed the way I saw beauty, belonging, and the world I had longed for. I beelined towards my knowing, and I came to be.
BECOMING
By meeting the needs of my children and my own with what I knew, I became more than the sum of my biological parts, and helped others do the same. What began in 2001 as a colorful exercise to belong with a bucket of paint became Devine Color, a groundbreaking paint line that pioneered how paint is sold to women today. After the market crash in 2008, I sold Devine Color to Valspar Paint in 2009, which was acquired by Sherwin-Williams in 2017.
BEARING
I found myself having the same conversations—this time about all the “should have known betters” creating misery and conflict in relationships. I began asking myself a different question: Could I help people belong, become, and bear shared dreams without a bucket of paint?
KNOWING TOGETHER
For me knowing began with color. For twenty-five years, my carefully I realized color had already taught me something much bigger. That discovery became Knowing: From Root to Fruit. Same knowing. Same needs. Different world.