Daisy O. Harrison is a California real estate broker and investor by profession, known in her field by her maiden name, Daisy Villanueva. Now retired, she has lived in North Las Vegas since 2016.
After earning a post‑graduate degree in public administration, she obtained her California real estate broker’s license while working in Berkeley, where she spent ten years beginning in 1987. Tired of the long commute, she left her job and opened her own office in downtown Vallejo, which she ran for the next 33 years.
While raising her three children through college as a single mother, she rediscovered her love for writing and painting during quiet moments to herself. She began painting again and founded an artists’ cooperative for minority artists whom she felt were underrepresented in mainstream galleries. From 2014 to 2020, she led this group in organizing art exhibits, competitions, and collaborative events with poet societies throughout Solano County.
When the county ordered her to close her real estate office and art gallery at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, she spent her isolation immersed in painting.
During the COVID downtime, she met her husband, Stephen Harrison, and together they traveled extensively. Their journeys to lesser‑known destinations sparked a new wave of artistic inspiration.
She has since published five books and three audiobooks and continues to create countless paintings in her home studio in North Las Vegas. She maintains a small but loyal group of collectors in Oakland, Vallejo, and Benicia, California, and hopes to build a following in southern Nevada.
When she isn’t painting or developing subplots for her historical fiction novels, she can be found gardening or babysitting her grandchildren.
On exhibit at Laughlin Library from August 16 through November 8, 2026
Monday: 10:00AM – 7:00PM
Tuesday: 10:00AM – 7:00PM
Wednesday: 10:00AM – 7:00PM
Thursday: 10:00AM – 7:00PM
Friday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
Saturday: 10:00AM – 6:00PM
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