Artist's Statement

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images 1 to 2 of 2
 
My Mother would tell you this all started when I was two. The first large scale masterpiece I created involved lipstick samples I discovered early one morning in my Dads "Fuller Brush" suitcase. (He ended up changing professions.) I went on to mixed media work at age three. The underside of the kitchen table served as canvas for a peanut butter and jelly abstract. It was cleaned off before I could sign it.



Before i knew it, I was in school taking every art class I could all through grade school and high school. After my kids were born, I finally began my formal studies at The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and received a BFA in Printmaking. After graduation, I found myself on the other side of the desk teaching screen printing at MIAD for 10 years. During the summer, I traveled the art show circuit and entered national competitions.



An old brick feed mill in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin is the home of my studio where I now work as an artist full time. (By the way, I no longer work with lipstick samples or peanut butter and jelly.)



My working process is a connection between myself and nature. The finished pieces are a connection between myself and other people. Hiking with my daughter in the Southwest, my son's land in northern Wisconsin, and memories of my grandparent's farm are sources for ideas. Textures of grasses, layers of drying leaves, and piles of stone. Colors of sunlight, shadows, and decay. Patterns of branches, tree bark, and pebbles in the sand. They are all part of the natural world that inspires me. Whether creating abstracts or more realistic renderings of nature, I work with a combination of spontaneity and editing. Multiple layers of ink -both transparent and opaque-are applied, edited and applied again. Eventually the piece will reflect nature with its rich surface quality, texture and energy.