".. ...almost a rubbing of my being"

i always used color. i drew with crayons and had lots of coloring books and notebooks filled with drawings. i loved rocks, walking in the woods and in the mud. i took lots of photos to document the people and spaces around me. this is still what i love to do but crayons turned to oil and watercolor, and mud into clay.

i grew up in elmhurst, illinois with a siamese cat named tuptim, mom, dad, brother erin and a basset hound, bicen. each summer my family drove to pennsylvania and maine where my parents grew up. i love maine and go back as often as i my wallet allows. my favorite movie was the cartoon robin hood and i’d whistle the theme from the walt disney version every morning. i didn’t like greens and one of my favorite foods was salmon loaf. i loved milk. i listened to the jackson 5, the monkeys, elvis, and disco on the radio. i loved science, art and theatre. my dad was a minister, writer and singer. he still has an amazingly, shockingly powerful and lovely voice with an irish brogue. my mom is a psychologist, an amazing sculptor, and has a strong and beautiful way of sharing her knowledge and openness with people. my family is witty, deep, brash, loving, sensitive and creative.

school: i won a contest in first grade for a drawing a picture of the boston tea party that i still have somewhere. i was taught by wonderful teachers at york high school: nester, laliberte, kamka, and randall in the humanities and art. i also discovered the hairy who and they changed how i thought about art and myself. i ended up at illinois state university where i met a gaggle of great people (zimmerman) and loved their museum and exhibitions and also studied english literature, but it was not a great fit for me at that time. i transferred to the university of illinois in champaign-urbana. i was in the painting department and had great teachers/professional artists that opened my eyes to new artists, new ways of thinking, great work and challenges: kendrick, kursel, bodnar, krepp and van laar. i met a great friend and painter in kowalski who made everything more interesting. i spent my last semester in wolverhampton, england, and took a trip to diani beach, kenya. that semester provided me with a grand perspective about the world we live in; our privileges, our beauty, our poverty and perceptions.

i floundered for a couple of years after receiving my bfa from u of i. i worked as a secretary at an engineering firm, installed phones at a va hospital, set and cleaned up weddings at my dad’s church, and kept a studio above a real estate office. i had a hard time finding myself and my way in the world. while looking for a present for my mom in a bookstore i found a book i thought she would love called what is art for? by shaun mcniff. she ended up giving it to me and it changed my perspective about how and why i wanted to make art as well as how i thought art could be taught. i applied and got into the rigorous and intense art therapy program at the school of the art institute of chicago. i had wonderfully fascinating teachers: seiden, ramsayer, vick, canby, semekowski, fish. i also met two very dear, smart and creative friends: blustein (now Jacobson) and maves. my internship was very strenuous and after writing my thesis and receiving my degree, i did some art therapy consulting and taught young children.

i got a studio in pilsen and started painting again. i eventually wound up at a marvelous facility for early childhood learning at the university of illinois in chicago. i moved my studio to the byron street studios in ravenswood. at this time i met amazing people and artists: keller, weaver-rivera, leuck-feldhaus, daniel, gin, stanuga, callahan, geiman, frieders, zoghlin, johnson, taylor and and and… i began showing my work more and developing a client base. i began to work in ceramics again due to a friend's encouragement: leuck-feldhaus, and began creating ceramic paintings at lill street with peterson as instructor and then, friend. i was introduced to interesting and wonderful artists there: williams, schwalbe-bouzide, kanovitz. i have great clients and friends that encourage and support me: mondschein, miller, clark, schnell, argiris, hansard, cameron, bentz, theobald, manning, fineberg, rathbun, phippen, hancock, j and x, larson, szyjka, bandit, and kursel. i began taking commissions and now have work all over the world.

i developed a good balance of life, work and art and came to the belief that the act of creating in whatever form it takes is a healthy and positive expression of the self. i get great joy from teaching, looking at art, being with friends and family and being outside. i have moved to the country in wisconsin after living in chicago for 14 years. i got a job teaching children at an amazing place: the john michael kohler arts center. i live in a farmhouse with my fiancé and our four cats. i joined a collective in chicago called margin gallery and i love the people and artists involved. i know that good people, teachers and friends are vital. i read a lot, talk a lot, take a sketchbook everywhere, take a lot of pictures, and create spaces and feeling in my art work through color and texture, line and writings. i always listen to music when i paint. i paint what comes to me for the day. it is an intuitive act of abstract creation expressed and influenced by interactions, cognitions and feelings, the weather: contemplations of my self and world. my works are multilayered and change several times before finished. for me, it is a tapping of the unconscious material and is expressed through manipulation of color, texture, writing and space. all of this, everything, is filtered in, steeped, and realized in paint and clay.