About the Author:

Anne Poarch grew up the youngest of five in the sandhills of North Carolina. Her mother and sister taught her the fine art of making a home, the equal beauty in shelling fresh peas or folding a crisply laundered sheet, while her father and brothers taught her how to paint, fish, and garden. . .to be outside and ramble the woods. After graduating cum laude from Wake Forest University in 1991, Anne traveled to Paris, where she worked as an au pair for the Picasso family, and attended the University of Paris, Sorbonne. After her year- long sojourn abroad, she returned to live and work in Richmond, Virginia, where she lives today with her husband and two sons. Anne worked for twenty-two years in the financial services industry as an institutional salesperson and financial advisor before leaving to start her own company and pursue her creative interests.

As founder of Basket & Bike, a bicycle tour company offering bicycle excursions and rentals along the Virginia Capital Trail in Richmond and Williamsburg, she wants to promote a leisurely bicycle lifestyle, to empower people to connect with the land and their communities. Her company gives back a portion of every tour to a rotating conservation cause. Anne is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Richmond, Reveille United Methodist Church, The Woman’s Club, the Tuckahoe Garden Club of Westhampton, a member club of the Garden Club of Virginia and the Garden Club of America.

Photograph by Tasha Tolliver for Palette Home 

About the Illustrator:

Sander Gibson, the author’s brother, was born in Laurinburg, North Carolina.  Having developed a passion for art early in life, he entered East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina as an art major, attended Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida and was awarded a BFA in Painting and Printmaking at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Additionally, he completed coursework at the Lyme Academy of Art, Old Lyme, Connecticut and North Carolina State University’s School of Design for Architecture. He has studied with the sculptor, Peter Agostini and the portrait painter, Aaron Shickler.

Sander has taught classes in painting, life-drawing, etching, and sculpture. He participated in the Third Century Artist Program of the North Carolina Arts Council in the late seventies. Besides one-man exhibitions, his work has been included in the North Carolina Annual Artists Exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Annual Artists Exhibition at the Fayetteville Museum of Art, and the Raleigh Fine Arts Society Exhibition at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. His work is included in private and corporate collections in this country, the West Indies, England, and the Middle East.

Sixteen years her senior, Sander affectionately referred to his younger sister Anne as his little flower, or prickly pear, depending upon her mood.

Sander lives with his wife and daughter in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.

To see more of Sander's work, visit his www.sandergibson.com, his facebook page, or call (828) 406-9826