About Me
My background
My Evolving Artist Statement:
As I think about my own personal art history, I am continually moved by the colors and scenes of my life. When I was a child, I believed I had 'magical lenses in my eyeballs' and I saw sparkles and patterns everywhere I went.
As I think about defining my work and myself as an artist, I am always reminded of the magic patterns, sparkles and repeats found in my photos, in my doodles and on the walls of my inspiration boards. Inflorescence (the multiple repeats) within a single flower or in a garden or a field, composed of miraculous colors and shapes lure me and call me to mimic their wonder.
The organic geometry of nature, both macro and micro, tantalize me and inspire all of my work. I studied Natural Science Illustration and Printmaking at UC Santa Cruz for my bachelor’s degree in fine arts, and then, ‘more sensibly,’ I decided to apply my art into graphic design and took courses at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. In 1996 I moved to Seattle where I stumbled into a successful business management career until 2010. The art in my heart always called to me and with the support of my family, I made the decision to leave the business world to pursue my art professionally.
Though I studied illustration and printmaking several decades prior, and having never had a formal painting education, I had always carried a fire within dedicated to making beauty, to share and to inspire. My love for the abstract world, my passion for nature and it’s color, with my botanical illustration training inform everything.
With every piece I try take a macro view of nature and then exploit the array of acrylic medium, to bring out the texture and dimensionality of the image. I use the various acrylic media to play with the depth via transparency and opacity, the finish, layering matte with gloss, in addition to the colors and form of the imagery.
Always, my work is meant to be beautiful first, fun and joyful and never too serious or complicated. The human world is filled with anguish and my hope is to offer a respite of calm and joy… I put socks on flowers, I create fantastical drips off petals, or blazing rainbows and mandalas of colors. My darker pieces are still about the light, the joy of finding those glimmering glowing flecks of light in a dark space.
I worship the imperfectly perfect geometry of the natural world and am mesmerized by the repetition and pattern all around us. I have been given a gift of this endeavor to uplift us with art and beauty.
The gorgeous seasons of the year here in my beautiful home city of Seattle, offer such a mind-bending array of flora, often glistening with the wetness of fresh raindrops. With the world of Nature as my inspiration and muse, I share my vision, welcome to my garden and offer you my representation of our glittering world.