Denise was born in Shelton, WA and raised in Seattle, and is a Skokomish and Navajo mix. Her parents taught her to be proud of her heritage so she learned to bead as a child and later, wanting to major in art, attended the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, 1976-1978. She free formed bead design ideas at first onto graph paper with color pencils. This changed when she attended the University of Washington. She had to concentrate on art in a structured environment and earned a BFA in Graphic Design. Her art moved into a new direction as she learned design programs including Illustrator and PhotoShop, and uniquely, Microsoft Excel. Excel became very important to Denise after she realized that she could design bead art in Excel worksheets. As she worked on each design, she was able to see these raw designs are art pieces on their own, and forms the blueprint for all her artwork.

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Burien, WA