I create dimensional, haptic works. Made primarily from paper or fiber and mixed media, I translate perceptual details of physical experience, considering the real or metaphorical landscape of the body, with themes surrounding feminine embodiment and legacy.
After graduating from University of North Texas, I worked in advertising and at Mattingly Baker Gallery in Dallas, eventually leaving my native Texas first for graduate school on the East coast. Post-MFA, I landed in the Midwest, employed by Lyric Opera, in Chicago theaters as a dresser and stitcher, and as an assistant at Rhona Hoffman Gallery — all experiences that further informed the direction of my subsequent visual arts practice, particularly relating to materials, construction and presentation.
I exhibited at Atlantic Gallery, NY, M. David & Co. in Brooklyn, and at Bushwick Open Studios. Other exhibitions include the Tacoma Art Museum, Square Foot Art Basel Miami, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (Chicago), Trenton City Museum, the Crane Arts Center (Philadelphia), Kimball Art Center (Salt Lake City), Seattle City Hall, and university and commercial galleries.
My work has been published in multiple formats, among them: Encaustic Arts Magazine. Fiber Art Now, Surface Design Journal, Encaustic in the Twenty-First Century, Experience Painting (textbook), Authentic Visual Voices, The World Encyclopedia of Calligraphy, Paper + Wax, Techniques for Combining Handmade Paper with Encaustic, Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility and Studio Visit Magazine. Reviews and interviews featuring my work are Vasari21, ArtBeat Radio KKNW, Mercer Island Center for the Arts, Seattle Woman Magazine, Zocalo Tucson Magazine, the Chicago Reader, Chicago Sun-Times, Culture Seen, and Artscope Magazine.
Exhibitions I have organized are rooted in culture and interdisciplinary in approach. Curatorial efforts entail exhibits such as Tenacious, a show about perseverance at Suzanne Zahr Gallery (Mercer Island, WA); Navigate at the Tashiro Kaplan Building (Seattle), relating how six artists negotiate paths; and Intersections: natural, intuitive, intentional (Blakely Hall, Issaquah, WA) — rendering the crossover between nature and culture. I am in progress co-authoring a book with Stephany Rimland, Professor of Art History, Harper College (Chicago, IL) on the use of dimensional encaustic.
I love sharing art through teaching: at Collin College, South Seattle College, Bellevue College, Columbia College, College of DuPage (where I received the Outstanding Faculty Award), Harper College, Bainbridge Art Museum, and the Delaware Art Museum. I earned an MFA at the University of Delaware, and a BFA at the University of North Texas. I have enjoyed the generous support of funding — for the Equity and Excellence in Education (EEE) Grant on the topic of Social Justice and Activism in the Art Studio Classroom, a BRIC grant for research on Anti-Bias Anti-Racist (ABAR) Teaching Materials for Teaching and Learning, and a Community of Inquiry, Practice and Excellence (CIPE) Grant at South Seattle College; the Gray Magness Fellowship Award at the University of Delaware; and the City of Chicago CAP Grant.
You can see more of my work online or in person at ArtX Contemporary, (Seattle, WA, USA), a contemporary art gallery whose mission is cultural dialogue through art, reflecting the diversity of influences shaping contemporary global culture.