About

: Elvis impersonator– age 6

I grew up in Akron, Ohio, drawing ’round the dining-room table with my three rowdy (smart) brothers, and artistic older sister.

Years later--with a hat

In sixth grade our class project was a mural titled “Runaway Home” from a book about a family who travel around the United States in a station wagon and a house-trailer. My segment was San Juan Capistrano, and because I finished it, I was given the task of completing another, and another, and another. I don’t remember ever being that competitive again! It went up above the blackboard in class in time for Open House. I still have a lovely pottery bust of a horse in dark teal I made in Jr. High.

My father was cameraman in a Lithography company he was part owner of. I learned to see photographically, to understand color, and I worked at the shop after high school as a stripper(!) and with my “tiny eyes” I could see and paint in minute flaws and dot-by-dot edges on negatives. In 1971 I was not able to join the union due to a Gender issue, so I went to begin a career in the Pizza industry in Arizona.

There I fell in love with the desert, especially at nights

when temperatures drop below 90, or after a rain when mist rises around the mountains, and the scent of sagebrush was like the breath of the goddess to me . . . appreciating the Native arts there I studied textiles and “ecology” at

Pima College. I followed some friends to the San Fransisco Bay Area where I studied drawing and painting at the Peralta Colleges, anatomical drawing, textile printing and watercolor at California College of Arts and Crafts, in addition to scattered sciences, oceanography, astronomy, botany, and film.

I have a gardening business where I can be outdoors, get grounded, and use my design sense. I often go back to the deserts and mountains, taking photographs to paint from later, and sometimes paint when I am there. Recently I began studying calligraphy because I am an avid journalist and want to incorporate my writings into the creative process.

Desert Spring--Acrylic, sand and glitter

I like to take plein air to the extreme, adding elements from the environment, such as sand (above) in the color of the ground, or glitter, lint, insects, clippings, and found objects . . .

I’m always hungry to use media and techniques I haven’t tried , and I get creative ideas from doing art with other people, playing music for, and with other people . . . Lately I am trying out different papers, making Super-B prints of my photographs and calligraphic work–and small cards and leave-behinds.