I researched the options for professional training and discovered that one of the best schools in the country, the Day Studio-Workshop, was a short ride away across the Golden Gate Bridge, and I wasted no time enrolling. Thrilled and inspired by what I was learning, I took one class after another, including Stone and Marble, Glazing and Gilding, Historical and Complex Stenciling, Color, etc. I also studied Casein and Color with one of Joanne's colleagues, Gale Laurence. Those classes changed the way I see the world, and changed my life because I went from using mostly my left brain (logical, analytical, objective) to discovering that I also had a right brain (intuitive, thoughtful, subjective), and beginning to develop it. We learned about asymmetrical balance, the "oval eye track", how to be inspired by shapes in the natural world, how to mix paints and work with color, and much, much more.

I know these expressions don't make sense out of context, but for example, the left side of our brain would take over when we began to learn how to create veining patterns, and they often looked like "x's" and "v's" (the dreaded alphabet). Eventually we were able to relax and use our right brain, letting inspiration from samples of veins in real marble guide our work. The comment about contrast had to do with making our faux marble samples with subtle contrast and depth like the real thing so that they looked as it they'd been created in layers over millions of years, instead like globs of paint sitting on top of a sample board.
At the time I had no idea of the long-term impact the training would have, but today I intuitively use the right side of my brain that I discovered at the Day Studio in just about every aspect of my personal and business life.