Biography

I was born in Calgary, Alberta. The first eight years of my career were spent in early childhood education and daycare. For a time, I ran a preschool. I was thrilled to watch and facilitate children make art. The young children created with vigor, without a concept of “right” and “wrong” ways to make their art.

At the age of twenty-nine, I challenged myself to return to school to fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a teacher. I moved to Lethbridge and began my journey toward the completion of both a B.A. and B.Ed., majoring in art for both degrees.
 
My first teaching position was with Grasslands Regional Division #6 in Southern Alberta, where I worked in three schools: Alcoma School, Bassano School, and Brooks Composite High School, where I taught Art from Grades 1 through 12. I was part of the organizing team of Landmarks Art Festival, a member of the Bassano Arts Council and directed the dinner theatre in Bassano for three years.

I returned to Calgary in 2000 to teach for the Calgary Board of Education. I have continued to work as an artist throughout my teaching career.

For the last seven years I have increased my own art production and am focused on developing as a professional artist. I designed an art symbol to replace my signature on my pieces. It was derived from the art carving entitled “The Venus of Willendorf”, an ancient symbol of women and fertility. It represents the inner and outer beauty of all women. Using this image, I incorporated my initials into its head and belly. I have included a picture of my art symbol below.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My Art is about passion and passion is art. I share this passion for art with my students, and want share this with the rest of the world.

My love of art is expressed through many media: painting, metal arts, woodcarving, jewelry and candle making. I believe art is an extension of oneself, thus my art is very colorful and usually abstract. I am inspired by color and texture and find the most bizarre things with which to create art. For example, I have created a sunflowers painting series based on my fascination with heavy packing cardboard. When pulling off one outer layer of the cardboard, a honeycomb-like surface results, which I use as the center of my abstract sunflowers.

I love to paint and play with media just like the young children who inspired me in daycare and preschool. I recently took an encaustic course, which has changed the type of media I primarily use now. Encaustic art production is my new love. You must work quickly with the wax paint mixture as it dries very quickly. This is a very spontaneous way of painting.
 Creating art for me is all about expressing who you are and what you love using color, texture, shape, and line to brighten up the world. I love to create new and exciting art using a variety of practices and materials.