As a child in the small Southeastern Minnesota city of La Crescent, where she still resides, Leanne cut out images of clothing and people from the J.C. Penney catalog to make her own paper dolls. In high school and college (business major, not art) she doodled in the margins of class notebooks and painted an occasional picture for a friend. While her three sons were young, she didn't make time for much art other than what she could do with them (they made some pretty impressive Lego creations!) Leanne’s “real” job as the Marketing & Development Director for the Children's Museum of La Crosse, Wisconsin has allowed her to be creative in many of her work tasks; however, she has recently been making a concentrated effort to create art at home on a regular basis. Although she has had no formal art training, she inherited some artistic talent. In fact, Leanne’s paternal grandmother is pictured in the World Book Encyclopedia under “copper”, as she made jewelry and other artwork in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Leanne enjoys trying new mediums. Her current favorites are watercolor painting, paper collage and a technique that she created using melted wax and alcohol ink. She has also created many mosaic pieces using bits of glass, tile and beads.