Statement

I see different realities, different possibilities. I paint to give form to what I perceive, a reality that extends beyond appearances. I am interested in pushing past the limits of inherited ways of seeing and thinking. I question accepted beliefs and conventional wisdom. Rather than subject, imagery, or technique, what defines my work is a consistent intention: to create images that function as thresholds into places of imagination where the unseen and the possible begin to take form. I resist convention through shifts in expectations, ambiguity, and a refusal to resolve meaning too easily. I enjoy uncovering new ideas and fresh perspectives. I don’t do boring.
 
At the core, I paint because I don’t accept the surface of things as final. I am compelled to discover what exists beyond it—the unseen, the imagined, the psychologically experienced. My paintings create places where something real can emerge—something not predetermined or confined by expectation.
 
What and How I Paint
 
I paint people, places, and situations that disrupt expectations, inherited assumptions about reality and meaning. They are visions of different realities, different possibilities. Capturing an idea is more important than a faithful rendering or adhering to artistic convention.
 
Informed by my background in both painting and psychology, I construct images that bring together elements of reality, myth, wonder, and psychological tension. Through layering, adjustment, and my lived experience, intangible ideas and states are distilled into tangible forms. The result is a visual space where recognition and estrangement coexist—where something familiar is present, but never fully resolved.
 
My process begins with an idea or direction. I often start with a thin wash of oil paint. Early stages of my paintings tend to have a watercolor-like look. The painting evolves from there and begins to suggest what it needs next. A painting is complete when the conversation ends.
 
Context of my artwork
 
I began questioning accepted beliefs and preconceived views of the world when I was eight years old. I walked into the Arizona Desert, alone. I never came back. Having recently moved to Tucson from Wisconsin, everything was unfamiliar, unpredictable, and full of new things to discover, It changed how I see and how I think. I learned that the world was full of possibilities if one just stopped, listened, and peered beyond the surface. Philosophically, I do my best to live fluidly with the unfolding of reality, respond to rather than control circumstances, and trust in the deeper order beneath appearances.
 
I have been oil painting since I was twelve. After the desert, I earned a BA in Wildlife Biology, an MFA in Painting, a PhD in Psychology. I have traveled and lived abroad and currently live in Colorado. I have exhibited my work across the United States and internationally.