I had thought I wanted to act and do all things theatre when I was growing up in California (my mother always admonishing me for being so Dramatic), but when I moved to Oregon with my husband and two young children and enrolled in college for the first time at age 30, my interest in painting soon developed when I was working as a figure study model in the art department. It was the best paying work-study job on campus! Modeling soon turned to painting and drawing … I wanted to be on the artist side of the canvas not the one being painted. I rejected being the muse.
I graduated from Portland State University with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies. It took me five years to earn my degree. Then two years at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, studying painting. My early work was very figurative and I have since moved into more abstraction. And oils and acrylics, watercolor, soon developed into fresco and then encaustic painting. I’m now back working in oils.
I’ve generally sold my work privately for the past 30 years in Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Oakland, but I have also been included in group exhibits at Fort Mason, San Francisco; Caunes-Minervois Abbey, France; Live Worms Gallery, North Beach, San Francisco; and now Fairweather Gallery in Seaside in August 2016.
My husband Eric and I lived in The Pearl, Portland, until recently when we decided we all just needed more space (two greyhounds, two cats, Eric and me all in a one bedroom). We are now in a lovely home in the SW Hills of Portland where Eric has his own office, I have studio space, and the hounds have a great yard to run in … and boy are they happy girls!