About me:
Hello! I'm an artist and art educator based in San Francisco. I received my MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and I was awarded the Cadogan Contemporary Art Award from the San Francisco Foundation for my graduate work. I'm a printmaker by training and create works on paper as well as digital illustrations. I'm inspired by the natural world and my work mostly revolves around plants and animals. I teach classes at the UC Berkeley Art Studio, Art School SF and San Francisco Art Institute's Public Education program.
I grew up in Florida surrounded by lush nature. In my youngest years we lived next door to a couple who were both entomology professors at the University of Florida. They generously indulged my curiosity about the exotic plants they grew in a greenhouse, and filled my mind with interesting facts about the insects they studied. My lifelong love of nature was sparked then, and I have followed it ever since. I spent a few years in Texas and I found its beauty stunning, especially during wildflower bloom. Now in northern California, I am awed by the diversity of plants which can grow under the marine layer. I enjoy biking to Golden Gate Park regularly to sketch and be inspired.
Artist Statement
Nature and plant life is my visual language, and I developed it as a means of interrogating our reality. Nature has no agenda other than existing and ensuring its continuity. It throws artificiality into stark relief. I am fascinated by the ways in which nature makes its way back in to the structures built to discourage it, or keep it out.
In bringing nature’s small elements to the forefront, I reveal something unseen, invite a new thought process, open a new path upon the one which was already there. My work is rich visual fields of these possibilities for contemplation.
Working in printmaking, I connect my process to nature. As my image builds in layers, it emulates nature’s interconnectedness and complexity. There are elements hidden beneath the surface layer which give shape to what can be seen. Repetition can describe movement or depth. Multiplying images mimics nature’s endless making of copies; from a small selection comes a proliferation, and it expands into the available space.
