About Me

I have always been an artist. I grew up creating things, it was as natural to me as breathing. I thought everybody did it. It was in grade school when the nuns told me to stop waisting my time on drawing that I realized not everyone experienced the world the same way as I did.

I am primarily self taught. Over the years I have explored a number of materials and mediums including fiber, glass, metal, and clay. I us all kinds of objects and media in my sculpture without putting limits on myself. My work ranges in size from 4 ft totems to 1/2 in beads. I love to use found objects in my pieces, they bring an energy and history in to the work. Color is a celebration and I use it freely, but my favorite medium is clay because of the intimacy between my hands and the material. It feels like I am connected to the energy of the earth and that instructs my work as you create.

My work has been described as both mysterious and whimsical. I draw my inspiration from dreams and nature and ordinary life. I like to make people look at ordinary things in different ways and perhaps connect to their own imaginations.
It is important to remind people that there are many layers to this world, not just the mundane one we inhabit the majority of our time.

Publications:

:: Lark Books, Edited by Valerie Van Arsdale Shrader,
500 Handmade Dolls: Modern Explorations of the Human Form (500 Series)

:: Interweave Press, Beadwork Magazine, best of Beadwork, 2009, 2011, 2012

Exhibitions:

:: “30X30”, March 2012. Ann Arbor Art Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

:: “The Mighty Miniature Show”,  May 2012. Michigan Artists Gallery, Suttons Bay, Michigan. 

:: “12 DAM Days”  November 2012. Detroit Artists Market, Detroit, Michigan.  

:: “Art Becomes Her”, March 2013. Orchard Gallery, Fort Wayne, Indiana.  

:: “artTile 2013”  April 2013. Indigenous Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio.: 

:: Spirits of the Earth Tribe" Solo exhibit,  May 2013, Allegory Gallery, Ligonier PA

:: "Fathom" March 2015, Allegory Gallery PA.