Artist Statement
I was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where the stage was set for my lifelong interest in art and poetry. An M.A. led to an 18-year career as a Marriage, Child, and Family Therapist. I spent most of my creative life in the area of visual arts, exhibiting and teaching art in many different locations in the Midwest and the Bay Area. In 2001 I moved to Lacey, Washington, where I was invited to join a group of poets in Olympia, called Fusion. Through this group I met many local poets and became a member of the Olympia Poetry Network. Arts Olympia is another local organization where I met many of my fellow local artists and friends. My poetry is sometimes influenced by my artwork and, conversely, my artwork is frequently derived from my poetry.
I taught collage and mixed media art at SPSCC for several years. I have shown my work at numerous galleries in the Olympia/Lacey area, and in juried exhibitions at the Kenneth J. Minnaert Gallery, the Leona Fuller Gallery at SPSCC, and the Art Gallery of Tacoma Community. My most recent exhibiting was with some fellow artists at Childhood’s End Gallery, during Spring Artswalk, 2023. My collages have been variously described as mysterious, unsettling, strange, and comic. All of these descriptors seem to fit at one time or another. The commingling of absurdity, comedy, and melancholy, for instance, is a part of my take on life, as well as my artistic intention.
