In 1993 I joined a painting class in my hometown. That really was the beginning of art making for me. I don’t remember making art as a kid although I was always drawn to creativity in some way.
I started painting representational pieces using my own photographs pretty much until I took my first collage class. The class changed the way I work. For many years I did collage after that class-no paint until another change in 2020 when an artist friend and I were meeting to paint still life’s during Covid.
I drew the first version of the still life but decided after that experience to try to paint as my friend was very encouraging about me moving forward with painting again.
So another change and so it seems to go-
Fast forward to the present time I make mixed media art which includes acrylic paint, my own designed papers I use for collage and other embellishments as well as incorporating mark making with tools such as pencil, pen, crayon, oil pastels, markers, scrapers, sticks, fingers and whatever I think of in the moment. It’s a very intuitive process with not a lot of planning ahead.
My art continues to grow as I experiment with new products such as gelli plate printing-collaging layers of painted papers to canvas or wooden panels in a mostly Abstract fashion.
I live in Sonoma County and since moving here have found many enjoyable art opportunities. I have shown my art in over 100 shows including Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Graton Gallery, Santa Rosa Art Center, Taylor Lane Organic Coffee, The Livery CoWork in Sebastopol, Redwood Cafe, Viva Mexicana, Coffee and Moore, Umpqua Bank, Usher Gallery, Fulton Crossing, Rena Charles Gallery, the Sebastopol Library, Airport Club, Finley Center and my own home studio space I call ‘Open Door Art Studio’.
I have been showing my art since 2025 with the ‘Circle of Six’-local artists/critique group from Sonoma County. Our first show together was at The Usher Gallery in Petaluma in 2025. Next at Finley Center in Fulton. And at Viva Mexicana in Sebastopol through December 2025. In January 2026 we showed our art at the Sebastopol Library. At present our art will be at Airport Club in Santa Rosa starting Sept 30th-2026.
Presently I have pieces at The Livery Co-Work-plate pieces, Graton Gallery-mixed media painting for which I won an Honorable Mention, SRAC Members wall-mixed media, Finley Center-mixed media and soon to be Airport Club-mixed media.
I continue to study art at Santa Rosa JC with Susan St. Thomas. I belong to AWS (Artists of Western Sonoma County) Art group in Sebastopol and The Muses group also in Sebastopol.
For 3 years I was on the visual arts team at Sebastopol Center for the Arts helping to develop and hang shows. The last two summers I have coordinated the AWS Peacetown artists.