Rita Gooding was born and raised in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. She grew up near the town of Mt. Angel. Being the second oldest in a family of 16 children, teaching came natural to her. She became an elementary school teacher and after a career of 32 years, retired in June of 1998. It wasn't until after retiring that she discovered her passion for woodcarving. She saw an article in the Oregonian about a folk art carver named Kelley Stadelman. Rita liked what she saw and immediately signed up for a class. After carving for 3 years with Harry Alsman, Rita started teaching at Heritage Arts Studio. Since this time, she has also taken the following classes:
1. Folk Art Faces, and two workshops which involved carving three dimensional folk art figures, taught by Kelley Stadelman, owner of Heritage Arts Studio, published and well-known folk art carver.
2. A three-dimensional Goose Santa, taught by Janet Clemens.
3. An Eagle in relief workshop taught by Don Floren.
4. Beginning and Intermediate Sculpture and Face Carving, taught by Terry Kramer, a noted and accomplished carver of Native American faces, from Salem Oregon.
5. Two weekend workshops in caricature carving, taught by Marvin Kaisersatt from Faribault, Minnesota.
6. Life Drawing, taught by Tim Tanner.
7. Attended advanced carving studies at Geisler-Moroder School in Elbginalp, Austria
8. Caricature carving with Cleve Taylor
Throughout her teaching career, Rita took a number of art classes, including tole painting. This served her well when in came to enhancing her folk art Santa's and other carving with decorative painting.
Besides sugar pine and basswood, Rita also enjoys carving Native American faces on cottonwood bark. She is constantly looking for opportunities to improve her carving skills and enjoys sharing them with her students.
