Exploring Idaho’s dirt roads, draws, and buttes with my father, an engineer and surveyor, inspired me to hold onto the spare, open landscape. He and I shared a love of Desert places like Death Valley, Moab, and Steen's Mountain. 

 

A third generation Idahoan, my great grandparents settled in Corral, Idaho in the late 1800’s.  Growing up in Boise in the early 70’s, was like a scene right out of American Graffiti.

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Mentors in college like George Roberts, John Killmaster, and Donald Douglass were inspiring.  Feminist Art profs at WSU, like Jo Hockenhull and Joy Broom were the impetus to take risks. Ross Coates, a Canadian native, encouraged me to use my own signature and revive my visible “hand of the artist".   A Bachelor of Fine Arts was never as important as the people who woke you up!

 

Living and being an artist are different things.  Gardening and conservation, I translate by painting with vivid color and fluid shape.