Diane Engel

I was looking for something new in my life…I’m a mother of two great boys. Both my husband and I work full-time at Arcelor Mittal. I needed a girls’ night out and that is when I found Kim Riley at Career Development. The year was 1998 and that’s when my life took a change.

Kim started out the class with about 12 students learning how to toll paint. She had a way of making you feel like you were a professional artist from the first stroke of the paintbrush. While toll painting, she encouraged 18 people to head to Indianapolis to get certified with Donna Douberry, a famous painter often seen on television. Everyone had a fantastic time and we all came home as certified one-stroke instructors. But, that was only the beginning. Since then, I have gone on to learn to paint Trompe Loeil, landscapes, murals and even faux finishing. The list goes on. I’ve painted three-dimensional and even with watercolor. Through it all, Kim Riley has been an inspiration to hundreds of people both through her talents as well as her outstanding personality.

I have been truly blessed with the opportunity to paint with Kim. And, to all of you who haven’t checked out her classes, you are missing out on a life-changing experience. With Kim’s help, anyone can go from someone willing to say, "I can’t paint, I have no talent", to presto producing beautiful paintings even your friends will love. My life still goes on with Kim and painting classes.

But, it also expanded into a woodworking class. Yes, another angel, Red Anderson. His class consisted of men along with three women whom he dared to teach. Red is great. You could see him worry, "oh no, these women have no idea about power tools". With Red’s help we all became quite comfortable with all the loud powerful dangerous power tools. I actually made a bookshelf – oak with custom-sized shelves. The shelves didn’t just sit on pins, but actually were inlayed and biscuted boards and finished with routing. I stand and look at my bookshelf with pride and disbelief that I made that.

The things that have come out of Red Anderson’s classes are beautiful pieces of furniture, everything from my simple, but beautiful bookshelf, to grandfather clocks and even kitchen cabinetry. I’ve seen hope chests and accent tables, and can you believe it, even a futon. The list goes on. Red Anderson is a wonderful teacher and I’ll hate to see him retire. Grab a class before he does, it will be well worth your time.

Let me tell you, Career Development doesn’t stop there. I took several classes with stained glass, another art that you can actually find a great deal of pride in. I’ve wanted to open my own studio due to Career Development. In class, I’ve made everything from flat panel art to lampshades and 3-D art pieces.

I have learned how to lay out a flower garden that can stop traffic and not only that, but how to take pictures of it in photography with Kathy Hamilton and a professional, Bill Stanic. Two more fantastic teachers.

What to do with all these pictures? But of course, they have a class for that too! Learn to collage in scrap booking or Photoshop can fix your old and new pictures. Put borders, backdrops and even yourself standing with the President.

I took a digital scrap booking class with CEI, and since then, I have made the lucky boys of the Michigan City High School football team digital scrapbooks of their senior football season for the past three years. I believe this is another area, that after retirement or after the boys’ go to college, could make a second enjoyable income.

With all my experience at Career Development I have yet to take a class that was not taught well and always found the teachers well versed in their subject and pleasant to be with.

Career Development has been a great part of my life and I am thankful for it.