Biography

I am a third generation Oregonian, born and raised in Oregon. My great-grandparents came from France to Oregon across the Oregon Trail in the 1840’s. Because of this history I have a deep connection to the country of the Northwest.

By the age of twenty-one, I was living in Chuquicamata, Chile in the foothills of the Andes in the Atacama Desert where my oldest son was born. Within two years I returned to Portland, Oregon, but I will always feel that I carry some part of that South American experience with me.

In mid-life I returned to college and received a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in sculpture. I had always practiced art starting as a teenager painting with oils on canvas. It was my life-long dream to receive a formal training in art.  Clay became my medium and my work, some cast in bronze, has been shown in Oregon galleries

After 25 years, my intention was to continue in clay sculpture; however, in 2000 I turned to watercolor which I found challenging and rewarding.  My work techniques continue to expand. I paint watercolors in several styles using watercolor pours, watercolor crayons, and airbrush.  I have also added collage, and most recently encaustic painting, to my practice.  I find that encaustic enables me to achieve some of the textural effects and abstraction I left behind in sculpture. I will never retire; art is a calling that I will always answer.