Artist Statement
Artist's Statement
In Mary Oliver's poem "The Summer Day, she asks, "Who made the world"
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
...Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?"
In Mary Oliver's poem, she asks us to live consciously. I choose to live my life as an artist and as someone who teaches others about art and about life. As an instructor, I teach a wide range of ages, 12 years and up. Young teens can be very serious about art and some of my best students have picked up a brush in their 60's and 70's. I take special care to help people overcome their fears and barriers about putting brush to paper. Once people turn on to the excitement of color they are often hooked for life. Few things give pleasure and serenity like art and I have seen art save lives.
I inspire my students to find compelling subjects everywhere in our diverse northwest landscape: trees, ferns, oceans, streams, flowers and fog, mammals and birds. I believe in painting from life and my students will always find something alive to paint in the classroom.
I am a true northwest native. My grandparents homesteaded in Mt. Vernon, WA. My earliest childhood memory is the view of Mt. Baker from my grandmother's kitchen window. I spent my teen years in eastern Washington and there I started my love affair with the desert. I started to paint seriously by age 12.
I attended Washington State University as a fine arts major, then the Burnley School of Professional Art in Seattle. My BS is in Human Services.
My art expresses the sense of wonder that I have for nature and for my life on this planet. It is my utmost desire to share that sense of gratitude with my students and those who view my paintings.
