Bio
How do you know?
Growing up in the 60s and 70s near New York City, I was exposed to ubiquitous billboards, bus signs, and newspaper ads promoting museum exhibits. I rushed to read my parents’ monthly subscriptions to Look and Life magazines so I could learn about artists, especially the abstract expressionists, Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock and their spontaneous compositions.
In Elementary School I was elated when we had art class and walked down the hall to “art room”. My class field trips included visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. These experiences excited and educated me. I knew I wanted to be an artist.
After being discouraged to pursue art as impractical, I received a degree in English Literature from the University of Delaware. I worked in broadcast media, moved to northeast Ohio, married and became the mother of two sons. In my 30s’ I finally took a class at a local art center. Soon afterward I attended night and evening classes with prominent area instructors at the Cleveland Institute of Art and Cleveland State University and was awarded my art degree from CSU when I was 44.
A devoted gardener, I used my art background to work in the field of garden design and managed programs at Cleveland Botanical Garden. Now a full-time artist, I am grateful every day.
Artist Statement
The personal yet universal languages of color, repetition and shape are my inspiration to create. By carefully coordinating these languages I hope to provoke emotions that may have no definition. I strive to find balance and comfort in the chaos and believe my art touches on the human need for visual excitement balanced with stable and grounding rhythms. My landscapes mirror the mercurial entanglement of the changing seasons while my abstractions are energetic playful designs.
My techniques include experimenting with the relativity of color and shape and how they influence each other by proximity. I expose color relationships in a layer and reveal method providing peeks in glimmers and slices. Layering these elements shape relationships and solidify the composition. I find my way through my process with improvisation rather than visualizing a finished product. I am always inspired by the sense of disorder, yet perfect organization found in the organic. The balance is always there.