I am interested in the tension between real and imagined, scientific and aesthetic, beautiful and strange. I am equally drawn to the chaos of large brush strokes and the obsessive precision of scientific illustrations. My work is either large scale oil paintings that flirt with color and form or miniature gouache illustrations of organic subjects.
I am an artist and educator who resides in Seattle, WA. A native of Austin, Texas, I grew up visually influenced by the iconographic landscape of bluebonnet fields and antelopes. Relocating to the Pacific Northwest early in childhood added a new layer to my aesthetic framework with dignified mountains, plump blackberries, and ocean air. I believe these forms appear in our collective unconscious as well as indirectly in my art. An obsession with detail and precision was instilled in me by my grandmother, who taught me to meditate while cross-stitching, shelling walnuts, and hand-painting miniature dollhouse furniture. The granddaughter of farmers, railroad workers, and barbers, my bloodline traces a deep value of using my own hands for self reliance and ingenuity. I have by turns had a career as a musician, a teacher, and an artist.
