Tricia Messinger’s need to work with her hands led her to pastel and she’s never left. Frustration over shipping her pieces and the high cost of framing were her starting points on her journey into alternative ways to creating pastels. The system that she now uses allows the brilliance of the pastel to shine through, while being much more durable and produced at a fraction of the cost of a traditional pastel. Her work is in private collections across the United States and she has been featured in Pastel Artist International (a.k.a. Patricia Buck Hamilton). She is a past president of the Arizona Pastel Artists Association and a former board member of the Pikes Peak Pastel Society. She now lives quietly in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, step-son and a full house of cats and dogs.