GALLERY REPRESENTATION:
By Hand Gallery, 101 W Kirkwood Ave, Ste 109, Bloomington, IN 47404

Background: My corporate background in website design meant years working with coding and pixels. (This was prior to the world of template websites.) As a website designer, I had many constraints: screen size, “top of the page” concerns, ease of use, quick downloading of images and, of course, meeting my clients’ needs. The graphics of my websites were carefully constructed in a visual program like Photoshop, then cut up and coded. The process could be fun and creative. But the work seemed so ephemeral: it could be gone with a crashed server, a changed mind, or a new business direction.

It’s been a wonderful change to work with cold and fused beeswax, acrylic, plaster, wood and collage. I can get hands-on and messy. Art is still ephemeral, but at least it can’t be gone in a blink of an eye. My chosen medium of wax (cold and encaustic) allow layering and then scraping back to reveal the layers beneath. Scratching, embedding, glazing, fusing and gouging give texture to these layers. There’s a hint of mystery, a story waiting to be revealed as the layers are worked and reworked. I leave it up to viewers to interpret it for themselves. Abstract images appeal to me the most. I am drawn to horizons, structure and saturated color. When I start a piece, as in designing a website, I have an idea of what I want the piece to look like. But unlike the finished website, my art piece may take a different direction from its inception.

My work is also currently shown in By Hand Gallery in Bloomington, Indiana. Group art shows and venues in Indiana have included the I Fell gallery (latest show was May 2024), Waldron Arts Center (February - March 2024), Brown County Art Gallery in Nashville, Indiana (T.C.Steele member show 2022, 2024), Needmore Coffee Roasters and Meadowood Gallery. I’ve taken encaustic and cold wax workshops, most recently in Provincetown, MA (International Encaustic Conference 2023). Other workshops include venues in Seattle, WA (Encausticamp); Penland, NC; and Asheville, NC.

I am a graduate of Earlham College (Richmond, IN), with a M.A. from Fairfield University (Fairfield, CT) in corporate communications. A native of Pittsburgh, I have lived throughout the US and Canada before settling in Bloomington, Indiana in 2015 — a great college town and home of Indiana University.