Suzie Garfield expects everyone to have stories (not just a story) to tell. As for her own background: She’s raised her 2 sons to adulthood. She’s programmed computers, managed business projects, learned as much as she could about other stuff, taught as much of it as she could get to interest other people, and always—always—told the stories about any and all of it. Now, as a retiree from the conventional workforce, an empty nester, a consumer of food, opera, theater, museums, the visual arts, and miscellaneous other adventures, and a perpetual storyteller, she keeps looking for and finding the next challenge, the next thing to learn, do, and teach, and the next story.

After teaching studio art and art history in high school and colleges, Lisa Parr opened and still runs her business internationally restoring Historic Landmark antique carousels, speaking and writing articles on them and her specialty of original paint. Additional application of her skills is for legal work, court verifying and identifying carousel figures for insurance, damage, and theft for private collectors, as well as appraisals for museums, art dealers, and auctions. In connection with carousel art, Lisa pursues research in early Celtic design and mythology on site in the upper isles of Scotland. Many early Celtic and pre-Christian designs are reproduced on carousels and carousel animals. Her interest in ancient and contemporary mythology has led her to research mountain storytelling, initiating more travel and recent storytelling, herself. Lisa has been telling Highland Park, Lake Forest, and several venues in Chicago. For fun, Lisa also restores antique wood toys and sports cars, which she drives with vigor and nostalgia.​