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

as a child, 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 playing in the mud. i also took photos to document the important 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, my mom, dad, brother and a basset hound. i was always coloring, making, creating.

in school, i won a contest in first grade for a drawing a picture of the boston tea party. i developed my love of reading and exploring other cultures in junior high through the passions of great teachers. i was challenged and guided by wonderful art, english and humanities teachers in high school. i discovered the hairy who and they changed how i thought about art and myself. i ended up at illinois state university majoring in art with a minor in english literature. i then transferred to the university of illinois in champaign-urbana and was in the painting department. i had extremely talented and engaged teachers/professional artists that opened my eyes to new artists, new ways of thinking, great work and challenges. 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. my internship at the illinois psychiatric institute of chicago 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. i began showing my work more and developing a client base. i began to work in ceramics again due to a friend's encouragement and began creating ceramic paintings at lill street on chicago north side. 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 my friends, family, cats and being outside. 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 make work. i create what comes to me for the day. it is an intuitive act of abstract creation expressed and influenced by interactions, cognitions and feelings, and the weather. 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