Artist Statement

Affiliations
•  The Society of Layerists in Multi-media (SLMM)
•  International Society of Experimental Artists (ISEA)
•  Minnesota Artists  -- MnArtists.org
•  Blogs on creativity, peace, meaning-making and creative recovery at Circle Pathways
•  The Arts and Healing Network  
         Inspiration: Healing artist 
         Artist Support: Art career consultant  
•  Creativity Coaching Association  (CCA)
•  Buffalo Calf Support Circle

Artist Bio  

Making art came to me early and very naturally but I wouldn't say easily because it takes determination and patience. I always wanted to create and share art, always preoccupied with the beauty of nature and stories from different sources. I am of Cornish, English and French descent, and along with these my DNA contains the red earth of the Adelaide Plains in Australia where I was born and raised on the traditional homeland of the Kaurna people and a sacred Dream Path used for thousands of years by Native Australian tribes and ancestors. As a teen I traveled by ship around the globe from Australia to England, lived for twelve years in England, then came to the United States in 1979. Woven into this are stories from my parents' numerous migrations.  and augmented by my own migrations. and my own migrations, augmented by  and travels there are experiences and stories that inform my art in a deep way.  

In the US I listen to people's stories about their ancestors, immigrations, homelands, and the histories of this country. Woven into this are stories from my parents' numerous migrations and later my own. Here is America there is much that I heard from Native Americans about tribal cultures that matched what I felt as a child growing up. Learning about Lakota traditions and teachings by native elders about Lakota lifeway, lakol wicoh'an, felt natural and so that has been a continuing journey, being given my Indian name, participating in traditional ceremonies. My husband's family are Nebraskans and Minnesotans. Between our families we have extended family in a dozen states, a handful of reservations and in Australia and England. If you line us up we'd make a scale of earth colors from ruby black through sienna browns, sand and oyster gold, all of us clay from the Potter's Wheel. 

My art education has been mostly non-traditional and for the most part I am self-taught but I've been fortunate to learn from friends who are great artists like the late conceptual artist Donald Celender and gifted painter Joe Geshick. The support I receive from my husband, family and friends is immense. While pursuing a professional career as a painter I developed a successful career in business and this has been helpful running the business side of being an artist.

I paint using acrylics, oils, layered mixed media and watercolors. My aim is to share with the viewer my feelings about the power and beauty I see in nature, the connections I perceive between landscape, storytelling and the human journey. My deepest feelings and experiences combine to create art depicting news from a  homebound traveler, perceptions from around the globe, the colorful pageant of life in America as well as respectful unconventional images from Native America through the eyes of a transplanted Australian painter. 

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