I have been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. As an only child, I would save my 50¢ a week allowance until I could buy a paint-by-number kit or some other art project to feed my creative spirit. I moved from hand-drawn paper dolls and collages of garden flowers to oil painting, watercolor, traditional Chinese ink drawing, acrylics, collaging, digital painting, sculpting, and all forms of mixed media. My degree at Central Missouri State University and adjunct professional training led to a lifetime of creating art and a 35-year career as a graphic designer. Since focusing on my fine art I have been juried into numerous shows, won awards, and had my work displayed at solo shows, public art displays, galleries, museums, and art shows both nationally and internationally. (See list of awards and art shows.)  

I have always been an intuitive artist. I love to combine various art modalities, which sometimes leads to happy surprises and new ways of seeing life. My passion is to approach my art as a small child. When creating paintings on canvas, I lay a canvas on the floor and randomly begin to brush, dab, drip, spray and scrape paints, inks and other materials with no particular form in mind. After a few days of exploring the initial abstract, I discover the seed of an image that I liberate from the background. Multiple layers enhance the emerging image, which takes on a life of its own. When creating digital paintings, I layer my photography with numerous layers of digital painting, resulting in a creation that is unexpected and “new.” Sculptures are also intuitive and multilayered. In all forms of my work, often something other than the visible appears, which to me is a testimony to the underlying connectedness of life.

In the spirit of Rassouli’s Fusionart, my art is often a fusing of various cultures, a communication with nature, a blending of opposites. It is a reflection of what is felt rather than what is seen. What appears in the finished work is my spiritual and emotional energy fusing with whatever is longing to be expressed. I hope to create something that is alive with energy — something that invites viewers to connect with life in new and meaningful ways.