A lifelong connection to the natural world and interest in how it is put together, led me to study science, math and art in college. As an undergraduate, in SUNY Albany, I majored in math but took more studio art that math, focusing on painting and printmaking. Post graduate, I continued my studies at the University of New Mexico, attracted by their printmaking reputation. There I continued painting and printmaking, and also experimented with collage and papermaking. For about ten years I digressed, got a Masters in Computer Science and spent my creative energies designing software. After having two children, I began creating art in earnest, once again.

Now, my work is mostly in pastel and oil, but I continue to have an alter ego that insists on playing with various textiles, most recently, tissue paper collage and mosaic. Portraiture, still life, landscape, the animal and human figure are the subjects of my work. Each piece is approached as a meditation. I look, listen and let the subject speak. I relinquish control and let a process that is beyond me take hold. I try to stay out of the way. Often it is the light and color that speak, it might be a tree that appears as a figure or a mood. Elements of dreams, daydreams, magic and play may find their way into the image.

These portraits and figure paintings are an exploration of the realm of personal reality. A conversation between the artist and her subject takes place on the canvas. Who are they? Where are they along life’s path? What are their dreams, attachments, aversions and amusements? Universal forces have conspired to bring them to this moment in time. What archetypal forms are expressing them selves? The paintings explore the joyful, as well as the shadow side, the impetus for growth and attachments to the natural world. The resulting narratives engage the viewer in another conversation, another exploration of personal reality.

I share the model with a few other painters. I paint the figure first, with the group, while we have the model. Then I work on the environment or situation alone, in my studio. This results in a narrative that is influenced by the subject, the group, my self and the energies and situations that surround us and that we create. I rarely come to the canvas knowing what result I am aiming for. Occasionally a general direction presents itself before I begin. Often the direction takes shape during the process of painting, being determined by what I learn about the model, how the group interacts, what goes on in my life and also by dreams or visions that I encounter during the process.