Artist's Statement
For me, art is how I engage with the physical world as well as the world of ideas, stories, and folklore. I want to interpret visually the stories which have been told and retold throughout history, and to indulge in the beauty of my surroundings. Using color, movement, and form, I hope to capture human faces and figures in ways that express not only joy and triumph but also the darker side of the human condition. I notice shapes and colors, from the smallest details to the larger picture, and how they connect and flow.
I live and work in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, a small community of creative people perched next to a beautiful waterfall. I have traveled in the United States and abroad—to western Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, Eastern Europe, southern Asia, and Africa. In these places I have experienced different colors, costumes, and cultures to add to my artistic repertoire.
My goal is to communicate how I see the visual beauty in all of creation, in light and shadow, colors and drama, pain and joy.
Artist's Bio
My interest in art began in my childhood, with strong encouragement from family and school. I grew up in Philadelphia, and attended a Quaker high school with an exceptionally strong art department and art history classes. I went on to the Boston Museum School where I studied figure drawing, anatomy, and painting.
I settled in New Hampshire in 1972, and for several years art took a back seat to raising children and farming. As I returned to art as a vocation, I worked as an illustrator and sign painter, and was commissioned to create several murals. I learned to do paper cutting which I also used as an illustration technique. My work as an illustrator included jigsaw puzzles, educational illustration, cards, books, and other products using various media such as watercolor, ink, pencil, gouache, and paper cutting.
I moved to Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts in 2006, where I run a bed and breakfast with my husband, Philip. My creative activities currently include painting, hand weaving, and illustration. In recent years I have expanded into the medium of egg tempera, taking courses and adding to my repertoire at the Shelburne Arts Co-op Gallery.
