"Trees of the Distant North" Painting

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, I grew up wandering the wilder edges of New England and the Seneca Territories of Western New York where my Seneca father was raised. Later I lived and studied in upstate New York and the quiet of rural Massachusetts. I now live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where the rolling farmlands and Susquehanna River inspire new Plein air adventures, and am developing an art and nature sanctuary in Litchfield County, CT. As Ganä:gah:is, "One Who Splashes Water,” a name given to me by my great-grandmother, my connection to my Haudenosaunee lineage runs deep, a living current that shapes my vision: I imagine water as a force of playful cleansing, constant movement, and profound transformation, mirroring life’s eternal flow. Art, for me, is a sacred act, a bridge between the seen and unseen, where intuition meets the natural world. My Russian-trained and Steiner teachers taught me to observe not just the surface but the aliveness and soul beneath. I work with both poetry and painting, separate externally but in constant conversation, drawing from anthroposophical wisdom and the teachings of the Haudenosaunee, to create works that carry healing energy. Each piece invites you into a conscious encounter, a renewed wonder at our world’s quiet magic. Oil remains my original love. Its rich, tactile depth allows me to express intensely. But I also love watercolor’s translucent veils and alcohol ink’s wild unpredictability. These mediums become portals for ethereal abstractions and luminous plein air and still life scenes, blending cultural reverence with contemporary intuition. I received a BA in English and Studio Art at Connecticut College, studying with with Barkley Hendrick; an MFA in Poetry at Bennington College, and intensive immersion at New York City’s Bridgeview School of Fine Art under Sasha Budayev, who rebuilt my foundation for seeing and making. I was selected for the 2024 Rivertowns Enterprise Plein Air Festival; a group multimedia exhibition at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Ganondagan State Historic Site in upstate New York (with ongoing displays in 2025), the Lancaster Art Vault, and MH Gallery in Marietta, PA. My paintings are in private collections across New York City, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Zealand, California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut—each one a shared story, a living connection in personal space.