I have always been an artist, but didn't answer the call for many years.

After earning a BA in design and art education, I spent more than 20 years as a principal partner in an environmental graphic design firm, designing sign systems for large public spaces. After a serious health crisis in the mid-90s I realized that I couldn't spend the rest of my life designing ever more complicated sign systems. I returned to graduate school and completed an MA in psychology, certified as an expressive arts therapist.

I opened my studio at the Stutz to lead groups for personal growth and healing using the expressive arts (music, movement, visual arts and writing). It didn't take long to figure out that I really just wanted to make art.

However, my work is a direct outgrowth of my experiential training. Every piece begins with a deeply felt emotion, authentically expressed. I like to work in series, focusing on an idea or an emotion or a particular moment in time.  Sometimes an individual painting takes months or years to complete, building layer upon layer over time. Other work appears full-blown in moments, as if by magic. With the encouragement of my fellow artists at the Stutz, I began showing and selling my work in 2006.

 I am constantly seeking new ways in which to communicate my visions. Although I greatly admire those artists who fall in love with and master one medium, I doubt that I will ever be that artist. My joy is in expression. When a new tool comes along to facilitate that expression, I willingly embrace it.

A major thread throughout my work has always been my love of color, which I have studied for more than 30 years, as both a design professional and working artist.  Recently I've been in a blue mode, attempting to capture the elusive blues of Cozumel, inspired by my forrays into the deep with scuba gear.

I currently teach color classes at the Stutz that focus on the fundamentals of color mixing.

 In 2007 began creating sumi-ink drawings to explore my personal “marks” and to discipline myself to create more authentically in the moment. I frequently create hundreds of these drawings at a sitting. Each individual drawing is created in a brief moment in time. The first drawings are terrible, destined for the recycling bin. Then the magic moment arrives: I’m in the flow and each drawing is an authentic expression of that particular moment. Just as quickly the moment disappears and I know it’s time to stop.

My studio is a wonderful, open space with lots of light. It's in a very large, recycled automobile factory in downtown Indianapolis that also houses more than 70 other artists. I am an active member of the Stutz Artists Association, teach color mixing classes and spend my days painting and drawing in my studio.