Tracye Sowders is #MadeForKnoxville. 

Tracye is a perfect example of the fact that it is never too late to fulfill your dreams. Tracye attended college to receive her degrees in psychology, art, and music to become an art and music therapist for children on the autism spectrum. In college she experimented with oils and watercolor, for which she won a National Honors Society award. When life had plans of its own, Tracye became a mother, quilter, calligrapher, and seamstress. After recently being bedridden for six weeks, she picked up painting again, and has been feeling grateful and fulfilled.

Tracye Sowders has a wide range of experience and knowledge including psychology, quilting, calligraphy, seamstressing, and oil and watercolor painting. She is excited to continue her art journey as she returns to painting with watercolor.

I am enjoying life so much now. I feel like all things happen in good time.”

In Their Own Words..

As a young college student, back in 1983, I dreamed of being an art and music therapist for children on the autism spectrum. I majored in psychology and minored in art and music. After meeting my  husband in my last year of college, I decided to start a family. I never had my career, but I had sold work in college and caught a glimpse of the freedom art offered. Skip ahead 35 or so years and I find myself bedridden for 6 weeks following a string of surgeries. I had been a hand quilter, calligrapher, and seamstress for most of my life. I was tired of all that, so I started painting again, there in bed. I had used oils in college, but I’d won a National Honors Society award for the nation in my junior year of high school for watercolor. So, I started painting in watercolor again. I am enjoying life so much now. I feel like all things happen in good time.

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Tracye Sowders



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