For more than 40 years, I worked variously as an art consultant, gallery owner, museum director, and finally, as a grant-seeker and -maker through the Phoenix Office of Arts & Culture. When I stepped away from my professional life, I expected to spend my time satisfying my thirst for travel. The pandemic lockdown upended those plans! A sense of isolation wasn’t new to me. I was raised on the North Central Plains on a ranch so big days could go by without seeing anyone other than a family member. Without the distraction of the world’s busyness, nature became my companion.
In 2020, unable to travel, isolated once more, I turned my heart and senses back towards nature. I focused on the small miracles present in my own backyard. I began to study the plants, leaves, pods, rocks, and trees in the space we share. I became obsessed with seeds. And after years of promoting the art of others and striving to make art accessible to all, I created my own art. I experimented with a variety of media, including collage, printmaking, encaustic painting, and ceramics. I love the spontaneity of abstract work and blending aspects of various media—paint and ceramic, encaustic and collage, printmaking and ceramic, for example.
My works explore the complexity and long association between the natural world, sexuality and fertility, spirituality and mysticism. For me, they are encounters with the flow of nature and its broad patterns and structures. While creating, I feel calmness in the palms of my hands, and I feel that again when I view the completed work.