Bio

Irene Watson, author of award winning The Sitting Swing: Finding Wisdom to Know the Difference (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Loving Healing Press,) was born and raised in a tiny hamlet of Reno in the northern area of the province of Alberta in Canada. It was a farming community, mostly settled by immigrants from Russia, Ukraine and Poland during the early 1900s. She received her Master's Degree in Psychology, with honors,  from Regis University, Denver. Irene and her husband, Robert,  live in Austin, Texas. They have two rescued Pommeranians, Tafton and Precious; one rescued calico cat, Patches; two rescued cockateils, Clemment and Elgin, and five Koi.

She is also author/editor of The Story That Must be Told: True Tales of Transformation, and, Authors Access: 30 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers and is in the process of co-authoring another book, Rewriting Life Scripts: Transformational Recovery for Families as well as having a chapter in The ART of Grandparenting. A chapter titled "They" is included in The Imprint Journey by Liliane Desjardins.

Irene is a facilitator of transformative retreats and workshops. She is also Aftercare Coach for Higher Power Productions 4-day programs facilitated by Liliane Desjardins.  Irene's background includes entrepreneurship as well as counselor with an Employee Assistance Program and a Psychosynthsis Therapist. She brings over 40 years of life changing experiences, facilitation and study into her hands-on programs.

As well, Irene is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, a book review and author publicity service. She mentors and coaches authors during private sessions from begining to end of manuscript writing.

Art Work

Creating expression with color excites Irene as she uses acrylics and other media to compose a variety of art work ranging from figurative to scapes, from abstract to still life.  Her style is expressive and vivid as she uses vibrant colors and textures. 

Irene started her studies in 1975  with renowned Canadian landscape artist, Robert Guest.  Her original paintings were in oils.  In 1995 she continued her studies with Austin artist Joan Lawson, learning techniques with acrylics and branching into figurative and abstract. Her original art work has found it’s way into homes in Canada, Europe, and the United States. See art work.

Geneology

Irene's interest in creating a “Family Tree” started in the late 1980s, however, gave up the thought when it became difficult to find the information.  It seemed that not much information was passed down through the immediate living families.  She took up the thought again in 2000 when her husband and she cleared out her father-in-law’s home after his move into a seniors residence. They found a wonderful old album full of photographs, many tin type dating back to mid 1800s.  The album belonged to her husband’s mother’s family.  Unfortunately, many of the photos did not have names on them.

 The album gave her an inspiration to get on a mission and identify the people in the photographs.  Well, needless to say, Irene had no idea what she was getting herself into!  She is having a blast connecting with “distant cousins” all over the United States, Canada, Scotland, and Spain.  Her hope is to connect with “distant cousins” in Ukraine/Poland and Ireland as well.  They even met some and plan to participate in family reunions from now on. Irene's family tree is very small and because of the churches being burned in Europe there is no documentation that is available.  Because of that, her main concentration is focused on her husband’s family.  So far, there are 11 generations of documented members of the tree.

On Irene's side of the family, the names Novak, Krawchuk, Shewchuk, Chomak and Yaniuk show up.  On her husband’s side the prevalent names are: Watson, Alexander, Irvine Fitzsimmons, Bayes, Wheeler and Short.

Irene has realized genealogy is an on-going project and that there will never be an end to it. At some point she will have to stop to pursue her goal of publishing a book that contains the tree, photos, stories, and documents.  And, then, of course there are addendums!

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