When Desiree Sterbini was in ninth grade, she had to do a class presentation, and as a shy teenager, she was petrified. Something a teacher said helped her push past her terror.

"He pulled me aside, and he said, 'Dez, why don't you just draw and paint your words?' And I did," she said.

Now an artist, that teacher's words helped shape her career.

"That's what I think I'm doing now. I'm drawing and painting my words," she said.

Sterbini, 62, has a studio at Arts on the Greenway in Mount Holly. A native of Fayetteville, Sterbini has lived in the Charlotte area since 2021. Sterbini has been a visual artist since she was a child, but after graduating from UNC Greensboro in 1985, she began working as a flight attendant. It was only after she had her daughter, Mia, in 1999 that she returned t

See Full Page