Quail Crossing Studio

I continued to doodle on all my books and folders at school and write small books that I illustrated . Finally my parents began to enroll me in summer art classes . From then on I took every art class in my high school, attended Cleveland Art institute in the summers, majored in art at Connecticut College  and later studied  with various teachers in the Bahamas and Chicago.

When I moved to Chicago I began to exhibit in juried shows . At the time painting was my medium of choice. Since I was raising 6 kids most of my subject matter was of children in different environments , but always with a fanciful bent.

When my family packed up our car with 6 kids, 3 dogs, 2 cats, a myna bird and parrot to move to a farm in Iowa, I took along all my art supplies too. I continued to  work in a studio we built  and to return to Chicago for various shows . Luther College was a big presence in our town of Decorah . It was here I was introduced to etching by Orville Running who was the old print master at Luther. The class was intriguing and I spent a couple of years in his studio before I equipped my own studio with a press and all of the other equipment to make etchings.

When our brood was grown and either in college or out on their own, my husband and I returned to the Chicago area. Before returning I attended the Drake University Biennial Print workshop. David Driesbach, printmaker extraordinaire , was demonstrating viscosity printmaking  . This technique allows the artist to develop the etching plate in such a way that layers of colors can be applied to it using the principle that an oily ink repels a less oily ink, resulting in a multi colored print with one trip through the press. I was hooked ! David taught at Northern Illinois University and I immediately signed up for his classes. The first summer I rented a room in DeKalb and thereafter I commuted. We became good friends and when he retired I continued to work once a week in his studio.  My viscosity etchings were accepted in  national and international juried shows as well as regional exhibitions  including the Chautauqua National Exhibition of American Art, Saga National Print Exhibition of the Society of American Graphic Artists, The Prints and the Paper at the San Diego Art Institute, Art And the Woman at the Whitney Museum.

Then it was off to Arizona  with our traveling menagerie!

My husband and I traveled to the western sunshine for a number of years before packing up and moving to Phoenix. I was very drawn to the desert even though it is very inhospitable, surrounded by skeleton mountains, and almost underwater shaped vegetation. I resonated with the magnificent saguaro , king of the Sonoran desert, standing tall, taking care of itself , completely self sufficient.  The desert critters are also well adapted to the stringent living conditions. Most of them are new neighbors for me ;  javalinas, coyotes, diamond backs,  gopher snakes,  scorpions,   tarantulas,  toads that sit by my porch light devouring  millers, gophers , roadrunners , hundreds of cottontails that stop by my bird café along with  flocks of quails and pack rats that eat my patio furniture!

Home sweet home !  

Branching out into another print medium ,I began to experiment with monotypes . The spontaneity of the process is exhilarating. I never left etching behind, I just expanded ! Now I have made another turn , a retro one. I am painting again !  Picking up a brush and squeezing out oil paints is a delight. Bill and I traveled to China this spring on a month long plein air painting trip  South of the Clouds in the Middle  Kingdom. The Linden Center in Xizhou was our base for two weeks of our stay. Of course my guerrilla box was stocked with oil paints and I returned home with stacks of small paintings now translated to larger ones. They have been sent to Barnsite Gallery, Kewanee and the Linden Gallery in Door County ,Wisconsin for a simultaneous show of the China groups finished work.

My life in art has been an inner and an outer journey. Many of my pieces are reminiscent of  dreams with symbols that tell a personal story. I have  2 series of etchings that  became a journey of   self discovery. One entitled ‘Journey “ , a set of 7 etchings ,evolved over four years  and are images of  a journey to wholeness. Another series is entitled “My Little Self “. The 14 plates  document the journey from ego to selflessness. I depended on inner guidance to inspire the images through dreams and meditations . Not until I saw the completed pictures in full color did I understand the metamorphosis of my creative soul. Many have told me that my journey is their journey too.

Later I wrote texts for both series and published two small books to share with others.

Not all of my work reflects inner work. The outer world is embraced with inner eyes. Bill and I have traveled some these past few years and I’ve come home with sketches and paintings from each new culture . We rented a house in Mexico a year ago. Mexico, land of hot salsa, blood chilling tequila where the mystery of duality is embraced as wholeness. I enrolled in the Belles Artes, the National Art Institute of Mexico and immediately jumped into creating monotypes based on what I sensed and saw around me; reaching for the feeling of Mexico . The somber and the playful occupy the same page.

In Belize I bonded with the jungle. A rich Eden with howler monkeys ! The ancient Mayan ruins stand in the middle of all this verdence literally growing together. Brillent birds call for attention. On a walk through the jungle I saw 90 different species !

I have returned with sketches and paintings from all the places we’ve gone and  also brought back  a better understanding and respect for other cultures. I tend to be attracted to the similarities and celebrate the uniqueness at the same time. I hope you, as the viewer , can enter into my world  of inner and outer  experience and find joy.

Now my studio is raging with etching projects, monotype plates and an easel with a painting in progress perched on it. Recently I have been honored with being chosen as the cover artist for the twelth annual "Hidden in The Hills" artist studio tour and two exciting awards. One from Brio for best in show  in “Go Figure” and first place in visual arts in the Cave Creek Film and Art Festival. My cup runneth  over!