I grew up in the village of Croxley Green about 20 miles from London, England.My father was a color retoucher in the printing industry. For “fun,” he painted ethereal watercolor landscapes. Although I was always interested in art, at 18 I did not have the passion or confidence to make it a career. I became a teacher instead and art and teaching have been cornerstones in my life. I have taught in Elementary and Special Education, English as a Foreign Language, Adult Basic Education, and Home Schooling. In my career as a teacher, I have been able to use my creativity in lesson planning and use art as a way to introduce concepts. Now, in my teaching my goal is to help students discover their own passions by introducing them to new concepts and materials. I spent 8 years of my life living in religious communities in India, England, and Oregon. During those years, I came to understand that every task is an opportunity for meditation and every task done with total awareness is a work of art. I did not realize the value of this insight until I began to pick up my art materials again. Before, I was too impatient, I did not allow my paintings the space to grow. I am learning to respect the unknown in my art. I am learning to paint from a place inside myself beyond the mind. I am learning not to give up until the painting is ready. My images are usually from nature, often from photographs taken by my husband. I want to go beyond the photographic image. Keeping one foot in the reality of recognizable images, I explore the unexpressed possibilities. I want to dance on the razor’s edge between the world of what is and what could be. My brushstrokes strive to blend both color and line to create a gentle path for the eye. My paintings are luxuriously undulating surfaces of color that are an invitation to the viewer to "touch with their eyes." I use modeling paste on canvas to evolve forms that provide a structure on which my images come to life. Random terrains and intended shapes marry together and are washed in transparent layers of color that reveal the unique “thumbprint” of the surface. The subjects of my paintings vary with my interest and are chosen to highlight my technique. I am fascinated by the designs found in nature; the bark on a tree, crevices in rock, high magnification images of cells. i often employ repetition to underline patterns both from the natural world and in my commentary on the world around me. I use my art to draw attention to the wold around us, to marvel at it’s intricacy of design and to underline the behavior of those who call this planet home. 
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