International artist JOAN C THOMSON had always been known as an artist, doing artistic things such as designing needlepoint and arranging flowers. A late-bloomer, having spent far too many years as an accounting clerk, she didn’t begin her formal art training until her 30’s. She studied at The Frog Hollow State Craft Center in Vermont and The Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee then earned an AFA in painting and printmaking at Central Piedmont Community College. “It took eight years, but it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.” Originally from Houston, Joan lives in Charlotte NC with her husband of over thirty years. She has exhibited widely and spoken to many groups. For years her art has traveled throughout the world without her but in recent years she’s taken her art and skills to Spain and Albania where she taught art, trained an international team of artists and oversaw the designing and painting of a mural in a children’s hospital.