Artist Statement

I may be a 13-year old living in a 50-something body, but I've figured out how to be happy: I create art every day! My most authentic stuff comes from doing what feels good in the moment. My art pretty much matches my personality: I'm a positive and somewhat quirky lady who loves her dogs, wine and everything miniature and cute. Art is magic and I believe in the healing properties of art in process, color and form. Often my inner child is in control of my instruments and constructs images that invoke smiles and frequently, laughter. I rent a studio and run my gallery/shop in a 100-year old cottage in south Jacksonville, Florida. I hope you enjoy purusing my website!

Biography

Hi! I grew up in Centerville, Ohio, graduated from OSU and then spent 27 years in the Atlanta area. I currently live in Saint Augustine, FL with my husband and two puggle dogs.

I come from a family of artists and was always coloring and creating art as a child. When it was time to go to college, I was discouraged from pursuing an art education and took a business/journalism route instead. In my mid-30s, I experienced a spiritual awakening following a divorce. I began having repetitive dreams that I was painting a blue stained-glass window. On my birthday in 2003, I invested in some art supplies and began to paint my dogs. I immediately became obsessed with the creamy quality of the paint and the meditative state that painting provided. (Later in 2005 I saw that same stained-glass window in a church in Brazil!)


Working exclusively from photographs, I built a business of painting pets for people around the globe. Eventually, painting pet portraits became a chore. I started to refuse commissions as it became clear that this was no longer technically challenging nor creative. From 2009-2011 I painted very little as I dealt with some health issues and focused on rearing my kids.

In 2012 I was inspired by the authenticity and uniqueness of Flora
Bowley’s art. With a broken wrist on my “right” hand, I completed an
online course offered by Bowley called the “Bloom True e-course.” Once
again, I found my joy in creating art. The “intuitive” process
(painting with no expectation of what the canvas would become) suits my need for creative freedom.

After the kids left the nest, I began to paint full-time and sought to try all kinds of mediums, techniques and tools. In 2020 I took a yearlong art mastery program with the Milan Art Institute.


I am now a full-time, educated artist with a gallery/studio/art school in south Jacksonville, Florida. I creates art that comes from my “happy place” and the result is whimsical, joyful and often amusing. I believe in the power of healing through art and seek to bring authentic joy and positive energy to every piece that that I create.

I also hope to help other creatives find their process through the experimentation of art play. It is through the act of trying new things and creating without expectations that we find our style. If you follow your joy, you will stay on your rightful path. And then it’s practice, practice, practice; which, should only bring joy to the creator and get passed on to the art recipient.