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I have lived the majority of my
life within Sonoma County, California, and I have taken a lot of inspiration
from nature and my surroundings. I have always done some sort of creative
activity since I was a child. I spent many hours with outdoors making 'salads'
out of weeds and flowers and did early 'baking and cooking' with play-dough. I
built houses out of legos and lincoln logs. I spent a lot of time 'coloring' and
drawing, playing with colored pencils, pens and with watercolors to recreate
trees and flowers and fairies.
As a teenager I got very excited about ceramics and made lots and lots of
pottery. I suppose clay became my 'adult' version of play-dough. I studied with
Sally Baker for several years. I also continued working 2-D both inside and out
of class with drawings and watercolors. When I got to Santa Rosa Junior College,
I got more interested in art history and design. I took a color theory class
there that fascinated me and I made painting after painting recreating Monet's
Japanese bridge in numerous color triads and quads. I also took some
horticulture classes, started studying herbs outside of class and considered
beginning a career in landscape design. When I transferred to Colby College in
Maine, I wanted to keep playing with color and paints and started taking oil
painting classes. I continued to learn more about art history and color theory.
I studied drawing with Harriet Mathews, printmaking with Scott Reid and painting
with Bevin Engman.
My junior year in college, I studied for a semester in Florence, Italy. The
colors of Tuscany and the hazy yellow glow of the environment there crept into
my work. I was mesmerized by how often I could actually see rays of sun filtered
through the clouds there. I was awed to see and study both High Renaissance and
Etruscan artwork in person, so old and yet still so vivid in front of me. And
later, after I graduated, I lived in London and travelled around Europe for the
better part of a year and was finally able to see Monet's bridge in person.
When I returned to Colby, I continued oil painting. Anne Harris came to
campus to give a slide show and lecture and I was both attracted and repelled by
the ethereal moodiness of her work and its rawness. I was amazed by her ability
to take opaque paint and make the skin she portrayed look so thin and
translucent. I had enjoyed painting landscapes and still lives, but I moved in a
direction towards portraits and self-portraits. At the time I was very
introspective, but also found myself to be a very reliable model - always
available at the same times that I had to paint, which my friends often were
not. I was also hesitant to ask many people to sit long enough for me to fully
explore the seemingly infinite nuances of skin. By then, I had clearly
recognized that skin was very rarely the 'flesh' color that Crayola told me it
should be. Towards the end of my senior year, I started playing with portraits
seen from odd angles and perspectives and noticed how my work was becoming more
about color than about the figure and I decided to leave out 'the middle person'
and go straight to abstract color fields.
I have not painted consistently over the past ten years or so, but remain
fascinated by color. I have continued to be creative in some aspect or another,
either through drawing or pastels or some other outlet. I even studied baking
and pastry for a while. After having some health issues related to that, I
returned to art through working at a local gallery. When they closed, I found a
job in the floral industry. As a floral designer, I can be creative with color
and shape in a very direct and hands-on way. In some ways, I don't feel far from
my childhood years of playing with weeds and flowers and fairies. Although I
have recently started painting again, my floral designs seem to be studies of
color in their own right.
No matter what the subject matter, I would say that my work is about
exploration of light and color. I appreciate color and its nuances, especially
how it can change drastically under different conditions and in different
settings. I have spent much of my life observing nature and my environment,
watching seasons, plants, people and myself changing. In general, my work seems
to be about using color to create and represent various moods within the work
and/or within myself.
Exhibitions
Recipient of President's Discretionary Fund: Permanent Display, Colby
College, Waterville, ME
Maine Coast Artists' Next Generation II, March, 2001 Rockport, ME
Colby College Senior Art Show May, 2001 Waterville, ME
Colby College Student Art Shows May, 1999-2000 Waterville, ME
Santa Rosa Junior College Student Art Shows 1996-1998 Santa Rosa, CA
Education
B.A., Studio Art: Painting Concentration, Magna Cum Laude with Distinction,
Colby College, Waterville, ME, May 2001
A.A., A.S. , Art Transfer major, Santa Rosa Junior College, Dean's Highest
Honors Santa Rosa, CA May 1998
Art History Coursework: Survey of Art from Ancient through Modern,
Native American Art, Arts of Japan, High Renaissance, Northern
Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Roman Art and Architecture, Greek and
Aegean.
Studio Art Coursework: Beginning Design, Color Theory, Sculpture
I, Photography I, Drawing 1,11, Printmaking 1,11, Painting I, II, III,
IV, V.
Other Experience
Floral Design courses, 2009, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, CA
Continued Oil Painting courses, 2005-2006, Santa Rosa Junior College,
Santa Rosa, CA
Exhibition Internship
at the Society of Arts and Crafts, 2001 Boston, MA
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