I was born in Burbank in 1959, lived for a few years in St Thomas in the Virgin Islands, then started school in Richmond and have been here ever since. After fifteen years in the grocery business, I needed more creativity in my life. Leaving Safeway on that last day in 1999, I dropped my uniform and boots in the parking lot garbage can and never looked back. My career in art began when I started h
elping my father, world-renowned artist, Jim DeWitt, and his wife, Sallie in their art business. One day, Sallie came to me with a GREAT idea. She said Point Richmond could support a custom picture framer, and I’d be perfect at it. Making frames, which I’d never done before? After the shock of it all, I did just that. I took framing classes (lots of them) and opened DeWitt Gallery and Framing with $100--a loan from Sallie—in 2000. In 2009, we transformed the gallery part of my business into an art collective with eight artists besides me and my father. As Gallery Art Director, I look after the everyday business of the collective. Together, we are going with the economic flow, in the process finding community and support from local talented artists and art enthusiasts. Like any entrepreneur, I juggle multiple high priorities every day, learning every step of the way. I love my job. I get to make people happy, and express my creativity. Bryan Delaney and I met the year I started my business in 2000. He jumped in and helped me with my art business—what a guy!--between electrical contracting jobs. One thing led to another and, before we knew it, we started raising our four teenagers together. Now, twelve years later, we’re married, proud grandparents and then, in 2009, we launched DeLaney Controls. So now I’m a custom framer, a gallery director and an electrical contractor! And it all makes sense…
We have a blessed life, not without its challenges. But things shouldn’t come too easily, right? Family and community—that’s what makes me feel rich.
