About
I am a mixed media artist based in Southern California. Art found me later in life, but it has become the thread that connects everything I have ever done. Before painting became my primary creative language, music was. I performed as a classical soloist, sang in choirs, and later performed with jazz and big bands, where the core of my experience was listening and responding. When illness took my voice, I eventually discovered another way to communicate. Painting became less a replacement than a continuation of that musical conversation—a wordless dialogue. The only way I know how to describe it: tango, communion, telepathy.
My creative practice is equally driven by my background in anthropology, museum work, and brand strategy. Having spent years studying and working with not only objects and historical sites, and the deep relationships people form with them, I became fascinated by how our surroundings quietly shape who we are and who we become over time. On an archaeology tour visiting ancient Indigenous and early human sites several years ago, ancient art took on a profound new meaning. Art speaks across millennia without force or coercion, in a kind of universal language. It does not dictate how or what to feel or think; it simply provides an encounter. I approach every canvas with that specific encounter in mind.
Artist Statement
My paintings explore the relationship between outer and inner landscapes, treating the canvas as a physical artifact rather than a literal image. Rejecting direct representation, my work preserves the residue of observation—capturing the psychological and material transformation that occurs through deeply experiencing a place. Memory is my primary reference, focusing on the subtle shifts in awareness that linger in environments shaped by water, light, vegetation, architecture, and time.
Working intuitively with layered mixed media, I build each surface through a deliberate process of listening and responding. Marks are added, obscured, and rediscovered until the painting reveals its own internal structural order. I operate within restrained palettes, allowing tactile texture, rhythmic mark-making, and atmospheric weight to carry the emotional core of the piece.
My practice is deeply informed by a longstanding interest in restorative environments. I am drawn to spaces intentionally cultivated for contemplation—from ancient ceremonial sites to modern architecture and structured gardens—where these quiet environments function not simply as subjects, but as active collaborators. Ultimately, my work interrogates a fundamental boundary: Where does the external environment end and the self begin? These canvases serve as sites for intentional focus, inviting a reflection that allows us to be fundamentally reshaped by the worlds both outside and inside ourselves.
Ethos
While my days are centered around the canvas, the act of moving a brush is only the final step of my process. I spend far more time in quiet contemplation and field-testing notes than I do painting; for me, art is a method for transmuting deep thought into physical form. This intuitive, deliberate approach extends far beyond the studio walls. It dictates how I ship my artwork, how I connect with people online and in person, and how I manage my business. Above all, I value honest, conscientious expression in art and in life.