Bio
I have been making art since I was a child doodling on paper napkins in restaurants during long family dinners. Throughout my early school years, I thrived in my art classes, and, in high school, I loved my art history and studio art classes most of all. Over the last 30 years, I have developed many of the skills offered by a traditional undergraduate fine arts degree by taking art classes in design, color theory, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, painting and ceramics offered through Santa Barbara City College’s community college and adult education centers between 1995 and the present. Stephanie Dotson at SBCC was an inspirational teacher—I took all of her printmaking classes over the course of several years. I also studied printmaking at the Academy of Art in San Francisco and took workshops with well known printmakers such as Karen Kunc and Ron Pokrasso. For the last several years, I have been studying ceramics with Dane Venaas and Lauren Hansen. They are both patient, kind, and knowledgeable teachers. I have learned all of my decorative pottery skills from them, and I am grateful to them both! I have also enjoyed workshops with well known ceramic artists Josh de Weese, Randy Brodnax, Don Ellis, Rebekah Bogard, and Jon Keenan. Prior to that, I studied landscape painting with Thomas Van Stein. I have a B.A. from UCSB in Environmental Studies and an M.B.A. from Marylhurst University, yet my life path always leads back to making art.
I have traveled extensively, and my sense of compassion and a desire to create a universal language developed initially from meeting people all over the world, learning about their cultures, lifestyles, values, personal struggles and goals. I am also keenly aware of social and environmental problems that are the collective result of each individual’s personal struggle to meet basic needs throughout the world. Collectively, these become the larger problems that result from lack of government focus on social human issues and environmental stewardship. I am progressive in my thinking as a result of this global exposure, yet my drive is to make art rather than devote my life to government policy. Currently, I maintain my studio at home in Santa Barbara and also enjoy the company of other artists and my talented and kind professors as we inspire one another to create and become better artists together.