I grew up in southwest Oklahoma with big skies and enough critters to fascinate a small child.  At a very early age I was fascinated with fairy tales and tales from other cultures. 
Some of my first memories are of my father's stories of the people and places he saw in his travels as a salesman.  He would strike up a conversation with a total stranger in a small cafe where we sat at the counter and they would talk about weather, crops, road work and bridges that might be out, the discussion inevitably winding down to the best places to fish and what bait to use, maybe even who to see about getting access to a secret fishing hole.  By the time we left I realized that my dad was an expert at sharing stories and making friends everywhere he went. 

The magic of my father's stories, the many books my mother encouraged me to read, the beautiful images they evoked created a need to go to new places and have adventures of my own. 
I started painting my adventures, and my experiences. At concerts I drew, at parties, meetings, hikes in the wilderness. In New Orleans I sketched the musicians when there was barely enough light to see.

I worked as an illustrator while I studied art, earning a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts and going on to study ceramics and education at the University of Utah. For over 13 years I taught fine art, art history and computer graphics at secondary and college levels, but I spent the summers painting the sunrise over the Salt Lake as well as traveling all over the western U.S., then on to the Caribbean, England, and Scotland.

I quit teaching to pursue art full time, but I still love exploring.  I keep a sketchbook wherever I go, and I can look back at sketchbooks from everywhere I've been since I was 18.  My work includes paintings & drawings and multi-media works that combine paper, ceramics, metals, glass, paint, wood and textiles. 
 
My work can be seen at Concept Gallery in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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