Finding one's real ambition in life is not something everyone manages to do.

For one Crenshaw County resident, however, her lifelong dream is about to come true.

Lisa Langford of Luverne has been accepted as an exhibiting member of SAC's Gallery, one of the oldest and most prestigious art galleries in Montgomery. The gallery is located at 2001 Mulberry Street.

&#8220I've always loved to paint and draw,” Langford said. &#8220In high school, I always did the bulletin boards for the teachers, but I had never thought about taking professional art lessons before.”

Langford graduated from Highland Home High School and began attending Troy University, working on a major in criminal justice. However, she soon found that her true love was art.

&#8220My husband Tim ran into Sara Corolla at the hardware store about five years ago, and things worked out so that I began taking art lessons from her,” she explained. &#8220I took lessons from her for about 18 months, and when people found out I could paint, they would call on me for all kinds of things, especially graphite and acrylic portraits.”

And Langford means it when she says &#8220all kinds of things.”

She laughs as she explains how she has &#8220gotten a lot of practice” from her family - her parents, Windham and Edna Sipper, her sisters, Lynn Broderway and Stacey Lowe, and even her best friend, Dajuana Tatum. Langford claims they have been her &#8220guinea pigs.”

&#8220I've painted canvasses in their homes, plates, wall murals, tiles, mirrors - you name it, I've done it.”

She's even painted a motorcycle and an iron bed.

&#8220Everything is a surface and all surfaces can be painted,” she said, laughing, &#8220and if my family would stand still long enough, I'd paint them, too.”

Langford adds that her family is definitely some of her biggest supporters.

&#8220I could draw a straight line and my husband would say that's the best straight line he's ever seen.”

Her son Brandon, who is a junior at Troy University, also helps her. He will soon be building birdhouses for her to paint, but he is not the only woodworker in the family. Langford's husband and father also work with wood and build picture frames for her.

Another person who has been instrumental in helping Langford get her artwork &#8220off the ground” is Bonnie Holland, a Crenshaw County native who is a botanical artist known for her work nationwide.

&#8220I am so thankful to Mrs. Bonnie for helping me,” Langford said. &#8220I've never seen someone just go out of her way to help another person like she has done for me with my painting.”

Both Langford and Holland will display their art at the Shady Days Festival in Gay, Ga., in October and at the SAC's Christmas show at the Shriners' Temple on the Eastern Blvd. in Montgomery in November.

&#8220She does absolutely beautiful work,” Holland said. &#8220It is wonderful to find someone with such talent and to be able to see them get recognized for it.”

Langford's artwork will be on display and for sale beginning Tuesday, July 3, at SAC's Gallery in Montgomery.