“Hi my name is Eileen Dellaselva. I live in Wallingford, Conn., with my husband Joe. We are celebrating our twenty-fifth anniversary this year and have three grown children, and a Labrador named Autumn. I have been painting since 1987 when I walked into The Crafty Lady and wanted to buy a painted item. Linda the owner said I could not buy it, but I could take a class and paint it myself. I laughed and said, ‘Sure, I could try that!’

“Well, I fell in love after my first class and have moved on to being one of the teachers at the same shop. I am a member of two chapters here: The Connecticut Yankee Painters and The Connecticut Society of Decorative Painters. I have served at president, secretary, newsletter editor and on many subcommittees. I enjoy teaching at chapter meetings. I also enjoy painting murals with my friend May. I have been lucky enough to attend thirteen SDP conferences and am looking forward to many more. I have also served as Chairman of Theme Development for New England Traditions and for the next two years will serve as Exhibit Hall Chair, for our wonderful convention here in New England. It was a great honor for me to pass the TDA program. I have to admit that I started it and put it on the back burner for awhile because I was afraid of the video portion, but I tackled it and found with the help of a few friends the video-taping was not so scary. I have been published in Tole World and look forward to teaching and sharing the love of painting wherever I can.”