About
I make intimate portraits of immense imaginary spaces.
I use the metaphor of landscape to explore relationships with time and space outside of everyday experience. Every work of art is a landscape — capturing and recording internal or external experiences. Because our memories of time and place are more than visual pictures, I rarely use photographic references — preferring instead to allow my work to be intuitive and sense-memory based.
Born in Virginia and growing up along the mid-Atlantic, my family origins are in the rice fields of Cajun SW Louisiana. Now living in Portland, I use a variety of media to make both abstract and objective landscapes. Inspired by the vast flatness of the alluvial planes of Mississippi Delta, and by the enveloping intimacy of the Pacific Northwest forests and coastline, I work in watercolor, encaustic, cold wax, oils, acrylic, and printmaking.
I have a BFA in textile design from the School of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University, and worked for twenty years in nonprofit publishing as a designer and art director. After earning my MA in curriculum design from the University of Mississippi, I taught English in critical-needs schools in the Delta for six years before moving to Portland where I have a private studio among the fir trees, an orange dog, and a spotted cat.
Visit my SW Portland studio by appointment
Representation/exhibitionS
It’s in the Details Group show (April 2024) at LK Gallery, Portland OR
Portland Open Studios Participating artist (October 2021, 2023)
Under the Bright Blue Vault of the Heavens: Remembering and the Mississippi Delta (April 2021) at Sidestreet Arts, Portland OR
Spring and All: Textural Exploration of Abstract Landscapes (May 2020) Curated collection with copper works by metalsmith Amy Ruedinger. Sidestreet Arts, Portland, OR
Art & Soul Gallery in Ashland, OR. (Represented artist)
Sidestreet Arts (Member Artist, Gallery Manager, Feature show curator, Website design 2019-2021)
The Sound and the Fury (August/September 2019) Featured artist at Shepherd’s Dream, Ashland OR.
Into the Woods: Collaborations with Forests (June 2019) Curated this feature gallery show of my encaustic paintings with two 3-D artists at Sidestreet Arts.Portland OR
Heart of America Artists Association nationally juried exhibition commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Arkansas Territory, traveling to museums, galleries, and universities in Arkansas and Oklahoma during 2019 and 2020.
Karuna Contemplative Living “Hello Goodbye: Ghosts and Shadows” solo show for meditation 2019 Portland, OR
First Friday PDX different venues as part of Portland’s Eastside Art Walk
Big 500 annual group show and benefit in Portland
Little by Little annual group show and benefit in Milwaukie, Oregon
Wine:30 group show 2018
The Portland Bottle Shop “Love Portland” group showing 2018, 2019; “Previous Seasons” solo show 2018
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