Over the years I have used a variety of media in my work including graphite pencil, oil pastel, paint, and digital collage, frequently mixing media. Mixing media continues to be a characteristic of my current work in collage and assemblage. I am primarily motivated by the materials themselves, by their physical qualities including color, texture and shape, and by the intriguing compositions that arise out of juxtaposing disparate elements.
I started life in the north of the Canadian province of Alberta and grew up in the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia. Soon after earning a B.A. in Psychology from the University of British Columbia, I moved with my husband to Boston where we lived for 5 years while he pursued a Ph. D. Lacking a work permit, I turned to creating art and studied briefly at the Massachusetts College of Art. Our next move was to the San Francisco Bay Area – to the area now known as Silicon Valley – a place my husband Johan and I are delighted to call home.
I have built upon my training at Mass. College of Art in workshops taught by artists such as Mary McCleary, Tim Lowly, Leslie Iwai and Marianne Lettieri, and by participation in artist-run critique and networking groups. In earlier years I exhibited at venues including Montalvo Art Center, and the Triangle Gallery in San Francisco. During the years I was raising three active daughters, I integrated art-making with this new child-centered life, including painting murals on elementary school walls and providing projects that enabled students to create murals. Since returning to the making of “grown-up art”, I have participated in numerous artist-run group shows. I also co-direct a Visual Arts program at a local church that includes curating five annual art exhibits and overseeing monthly workshops.