NJ Wheelock is a multi-media artist in Rhinebeck, N.Y., with a 15 year specialty in "micro-mosaics". As a communications graduate of Syracuse University, she spent time doing work on commercial and public service announcements for radio, before settling in a career as a counselor for emotionally disturbed youth for 12 years. During this time she also created recycled glass mosaic and garden art, for specialty shops in Rhinebeck and Woodstock, N.Y. An unexpected diagnosis of advanced cancer and a year of treatment resulted in job loss, and prompted the development, and fine tuning of her artistic talent. Her passion for intricate detail and meticulous work, sparked her to create a new media for mosaics not seen elsewhere. The intention of these "micro-mosaics" being to astound and amaze with the complexity of interrelated tiny pieces (silver lined glass bugle beads) always hundreds, most often thousands, to complete one larger scale design on sculpture. Each raw form is base painted, a design rough sketched, and beads glued on one by one. Completed pieces are sprayed with a UV protective clear coat sealant. Recognition from a number of public arts projects in the Hudson Valley, Hudson, and the Catskills, led to an invitation to have her work featured in a gallery in Rhinebeck. Photographs of her work have been used to promote the arts and tourism in numerous magazines, brochures, and a commercial in Greene, Duchess, and Columbia counties. She and her work were also highlighted in an episode of a series on Animal Planet Network. She is well known for her interpretation of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" , reinvented as a micro-mosaic on sculpture. More shapes, new designs, and continued starry nights lie ahead.... one bead at a time.