About the Artist

I have been an artist from my earliest memories and probably well before that. My parents were both very creative people who loved the arts and sciences so I was always encouraged to draw, paint, sculpt, dance, sing, play the piano and think imaginatively and inventively! My first art commission was in first grade. I was seven years old. The teacher asked me to draw a Nativity scene on half of the blackboard, which I did, replete with the Holy Family and the animals around them and shepherds and angels in the surrounding hills. She left it up long after Christmas. I did various commissions throughout my school years, portraits in high school and murals in the Navy.

Even though I wanted to spend my life creating artwork and music, I thought that may not be a very prudent way to earn a living, so I decided to become a psychologist or psychiatrist. Before going to college, I was in the Navy for a bit to get the GI Bill for college expenses. Then I started classes at the University of Michigan. After almost two years of science classes, I had a change of heart. I decided that the best way for me to help humanity evolve toward being more peaceful and joyful would be to just do my artwork and get it out in the world. It was scary to take this leap. My logical mind again told me it wasn’t a rational way to support myself. and also, I was very bad at being critiqued - a major part of art classes.

Deciding to accept the fine art challenge, I applied to and was accepted into Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, but they offered no financial aid, so I met with the Assistant Dean of the University of Michigan Art School and was accepted at the meeting. As I began working with artists and doing artwork all the time, I decided that I wanted to create images with only light in three dimensions changing with music. With that in mind, I kept working towards my BFA in drawing and painting (the illusion of three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface) while also studying holography, lasers and metaphysics. After getting my BFA, I stayed in Ann Arbor for another year and a half planning, creating and putting on a large Holography and Laser show at the School of Art’s Slusser Gallery. I also worked as a botanical illustrator.

Life kept changing around and with me but the desire to create light images in space with music was/is always there. In the meantime, creating the illusion of three dimensions and movement on a two-dimensional surface has been a fun challenge and has led me to many different ways of doing paintings and drawings. All my life experiences (conscious and subconscious) seem to flow and reconnect in my mind and become the dreams and visions I transform into paintings and drawings. Throughout my life, the drawing and painting, spiritual studies, nebula* studies and piano playing continue even as responsibilities ebb and flow and priorities continuously shift. I also have the great love for and from family, friends, animals and all of nature - always there, always wonderful and sustaining.

I now live with my husband and our happy dogs on forested hills outside of Frankfort, Michigan. We are working to create a self-sustaining homestead. Art projects are woven in and around gardening, food harvesting and storage, building projects, family time and walks through woods and/or along Lake Michigan dunes and beaches. Life is a journey of adventure and discovery, learning and love.

*nebula (my definition) - three=dimensional clouds of energy which change over time with the music of all that is. You will find nebulae and/or star fields in many of my drawings and paintings.