ART HISTORY
I graduated from college with a degree in Art Education over 30 years ago. I was lucky to have two major loves in my life: art and sports. My love of art and my disdain for modern dance (and the tights required to be worn) motivated me to become an art major and not the stereotypical PE major that most female athletes migrated towards back in those days. For the majority of my adult life, I proceeded to do everything but art; US Army, LAPD police officer, collegiate softball coach, business owner and finally, artist. I began teaching myself Photoshop in 2001 and I started and created from scratch, a business that makes custom designed sports awards for colleges/universities. This allowed me to begin making my way back to my creative side and all of these varied experiences have contributed to my vision and expression.
ART PHILOSOPHY
In 2014 I started exploring with encaustics and image transfer processes. I prefer to use my own photographs but I also love to incorporate vintage photos. I love the old black and white images from another time - these snippets of a moment captured in that single frame. I try to evoke an emotion or tell a story or create an opportunity for the viewer to inject their own story. I sometimes add text from my many years of collecting quotes, or sentences from a book I've read, or even advertisements. I like to find irony and/or conflict in both the image and the words. I just want to make art that I would want hanging in my limited precious space.
ART PROCESS
The transparency of the wax allows me to add color (colored encaustics, papers, oil pastels, oil sticks) and images. The wax mutes the image in dreamy translucent layers creating depth and hidden treasures to find beneath the wax. These dimensional pieces contain the earthiness of nature and art combined together.
