Just Because Painting

While currently residing in San Diego, I’ve had a close relationship with art since picking up a brush and canvas while a child in small-town Wisconsin. One of my favorite childhood memories was when my father took me to the only local art store (Sherwin Williams) and simply said “pick something out”. The dilemma of choice has stuck with me all these days and is perhaps the reason why my art takes inspiration from such a variety of styles and techniques. Since then, I’ve explored the worlds of jewelry, collage, mosaics, graphic design… But on that day with my father, I walked out the store an animated child with my first set of paints and a blank canvas.   Creating has been the only constant in my life and an important form of self-expression. While my bachelors degree was in Vocational Rehabilitation, it was the various art classes that inspired me. I experimented with drawing, design, art metals and weaving. My art took inspiration from my love of dancing, hiking, backpacking, and nature, imbuing my work with movement, life and a palate as varied as an expansive field of wildflowers gracing the horizon. I am constantly experimenting with new materials and techniques striving to embody in my work the beauty and excitement of the world I see around and inside me.   While a mother to three kids in Madison, Wisconsin, I crafted jewelry, as well as a line of art kits that were purchased all over the US. When I opened my own gallery and art supply store, focusing on home decor, I developed a series of classes on mosaics, glass painting, handmade lampshades and other projects for the home. Shortly thereafter, I enrolled as a part-time student, studying Graphic Design & Illustration. Going back to college was an opportunity for me to continue my education as an artist. I’ve always found inspiration in the art of others and have never found a limit to what I can learn from their experience.   Since moving to San Diego, California in 2010, I revisited many of the mediums I’ve used in the past, eventually discovering a new love and passion for abstract painting. Combining my years of experience as an artist of many mediums with an abstract style and a large swath of paints and materials, I’ve been experimenting with layers of contrast. Creating images that dance and play in the viewers imagination, my abstract paintings have been described as anything from tranquil and relaxing to thrilling and startling.