Sometimes, life can be a lot like paint – chaotic like splatter paint or unpredictable like a Picasso painting. People themselves are sometimes like a palette with all the colors of their lives.

Johnna Harrison’s life is filled with many things – her job, her kids, and past experiences – but her passion for painting is one color on the palette.

“If I didn’t have to do anything else, I would probably just paint all day,” she said.

Harrison has always had a passion for art, but her favorite kind is oil painting. She discovered it when she was in high school in a town just south of Derby.

“I just took every art class I could and I had just never taken a painting class before and I just fell in love with it. (High school art classes are) like a place to zen out when you don’t really want to read anymore even though I love reading,” she said.

Harrison also works as a part-time librarian at the Derby Public Library.

“It was an opportunity I didn’t even know I was looking for,” she said.

Harrison learned about the job when she got a library card and then applied for it, interviewed and was hired.

“I obviously like to read. That’s pretty much what gets you the job here. You tell them you like to read,” Harrison said jokingly.

However, even though oil painting and reading are very important to her, Harrison’s greatest source of happiness comes from her children. She is a mother of two boys that are “just wild” – 18 months and 6 years old.

Throughout all of her experiences, Harrison does not think there is one memory that outshines the rest. The most important lesson she has learned is that “you have today.”

“I try to make every day memorable, live life to the fullest. I try not to think too much of the past or the future because the now is everything,” Harrison said.