Brenda Semanick has been a professional artist for over twenty years. She is most known for her watercolors of the Tucson Barrio and large floral canvases: cactus, night-blooming cereus, iris and amaryllis. Collections include the Tucson Airport Authority, Sky Harbor Airport, the Tucson Museum of Art, Northwest Medical Center, National Bank of Tucson, and Sonoma State College. For the last seventeen years, she has been the designated artist for the Tucson Winter Chamber Orchestra Festival’s annual poster.

While maintaining a disciplined painting schedule to provide work for two galleries, she also pursued a career as an art educator. Recognition of her devotion to her vocation and students has been recognized with several significant awards: 2004 Top Ten Finalist, Arizona Teacher of the Year; Tucson Pima Arts Council 2006 Art Educator of the Year and induction to the Sunnyside School District Hall of Fame in 2005. 

Three years ago Brenda completed her first public art project and is now working on her fourth as the commissioned artist for the new Cushing Street Bridge. 

Brenda retired from teaching in 2008 and maintains a studio surrounded with other artists. She lives in Tucson with her husband, artist David Johnson Vandenberg, where they passionately make art the central part of their life.