After graduating from Wagner College, NYC with a BA in Fine Art, I spent most of the seventies living and painting in Europe.  I had studied painting in Austria and then had lived in Antwerp, Belgium.  I eventually established a studio in Marbella, Spain on the Costa del Sol, about an hour away from the birthplace of Picasso.

Five years under the bright Spanish sun added an intensity to the colors of my palette and a wide range of experiences to my career as a professional artist.  I exhibited in Antwerp, Belgium, Pepe Moreno in Marbella, Spain, Banco Bilbao, Spain, Gallery Nini in Oslo, Norway, Las Girasoles, Almuñécar, Spain, and Galeria Philippe Maeck, Marbella, Spain.

My works from this period are in the collections of Baroness Terri von Pantz, New York, Zelva Fischer-Pierce, Switzerland, John Havelicek, Boston, Said Jamai, Australia, Yvan Van Outrive of Bangkok, Thailand, Duquesa de Almenara, Madrid, Spain, Mr. And Mrs Albert Rickmans, Netherlands, John Burgos, Mexico City, Harold Robbins, California and others.

After I returned to the US I exhibited in Rhoda Sande Gallery in midtown Manhattan and established a studio in upstate New York, where I was resident director of Guy Park State Historic Site.

Eventually I moved to Winston-Salem with my husband Jeff.  Here we raised two sons.  I earned a Masters degree from Salem College and worked for twenty years as a teacher.  Although I continued to paint,  I put off exhibiting since my painting time was limited.

For the last few years, I have been enthusiastically experimenting with acrylics and leafing and have become fascinated with textures.  I take what I see in nature and mold it by creating simpler forms, spatial relationships, bold colors including copper, gold and silver leaf, and rich and deep textures.  I want the visual story I am telling in my creations to invite the viewer into the painting and allow the viewer to create his/her own narrative.

Series  “Energy Around Us”

My current and long-term focus is on the work in this section.

I am exploring the energies within many things around us and including us. Human forms crisscross and dance around each other and reveal their inside energies. Simple plant forms are filled with vibrations and pulsating movements that work harmoniously to give life to their leaves and stems and branches.  I peer inside these forms and capture this energy.  
Through the use of many different textures, acrylics and lots of gold, silver and copper leaf I create a tapestry of forms which show movement and yet a peaceful illumination of my newly created vision of reality.  The viewer will see one thing from far away, another from mid-range and another close up where the textures will become very detailed and important.  The acrylics and the leafing make the works luminous and full of life.

In this series I also explore compositions based upon the energies contained within different musical pieces.  For instance, “Shades of All Blues”  is based upon the piece “All Blues” from the album “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis.  “Coltrane’s Crescent” is from the John Coltrane album “Crescent”.  In these musically inspired works I am peering within the instruments and the artists and bringing forth my interpretation of their compositions.

Series  "Within"

A special friend of mine decided to retire after many years of helping people using Reiki, acupressure, massage, and her overall caring nature.  She would never call herself a “healer”, but, rather, a guide to help the body use its own energy to heal.  She helped me more than one time and became very important in my life.  I felt the need to thank her with a painting.  One night I dreamed the painting I would make for her. The entire painting was visualized and fully executed in my dream. I followed my dream and depicted this beautiful person.

An outline of a woman shows an ocean vista with sky, silver leaf water, distant rocky shores and nearer copper leaf grasses and textured fleshy sand.  She stands in front of a symbolic wall of gold leaf blocks.The woman’s essence is beautiful and natural, as the ocean view becomes  her portrait.  She symbolizes people who have battled with the beasts of illness such as cancer, heart disease, depression or addiction. 

The gold leaf blocks around the figure highlight the spiritual nature of the woman, much the way the gold leaf background worked in icons of the early centuries.  They are shown to be a supportive structure inclusive of family, friends, doctors, nurses, medical personnel and all the many people and animal companions who have touched the lives of an ill person during her/his struggle.   I continued this series, dedicating it to more men and women I knew battling for their lives.

Series “The Earth Has a Memory”     

This series was inspired by a trip I took to the Tucson, Arizona area.  As I was viewing the petroglyphs of the Hohokama Indians on a rock outcropping in the Arizona Desert Museum, I could see these people with my mind’s eye as they worked there hundreds of years ago. It occurred to me that the Earth has a memory of the people who have been here over the centuries.  It is an interesting challenge for me to convey this idea in a symbolic painting.

Although I started this theme with seascapes it naturally evolved into portraying memories of people in other settings.  This became my series about Downtown.

Series:  “Memories Downtown”

Winston-Salem has a lively downtown and Arts District.  Many times I have enjoyed activities there and depicted them in these paintings with the addition of “memories” of people who have been here before.  These memories are expressed with gold, silver and copper leaf.