Most artists begin telling about themselves with stories about how they liked to draw when they were a toddler, or about the art classes they took, or the museums they visited when they were a child.  Not me.  I never showed any interest in art beyond coloring books, never went to art museums, never took art lessons or art in school.  Nothing--until I was 40 years old.

At age 40, with a good career established in university administration, I stopped to watch a wicker basketmaker demonstrating his craft while at an art show with my husband.  I was hooked!  I spent the whole day in that booth.  That night over dinner, I told my husband that I was going to quit my job at the university and become a basketmaker--I, who had never even tried to make a basket in my life!  I am eternally grateful that he didn't laugh or even try to talk me out of it.

That was April of 1990, and by June 1990 I had indeed taught myself to weave and left academe behind.  Over the years that followed I worked to master weaving as an art form, learned so much about design and color, fell in love with shapes that shift and flow into one another and made my living for 21 years.

Basketry, at the level I was doing it, has potential health issues associated and by 2011 I had decided it was time to make a change.  Earlier I had begun painting as both a hobby and as a way to learn and experiment with color.  Now it became my primary focus.  The next few years were spent with books, workshops and mentors so I could learn to paint and also to find my authentic artistic self in painting, as I had in basketry.

With many in-between steps, I eventually came to realize that the essence of my artistic vision in basketry could carry over into my painting, and I've been exploring those possibilities every since.  In the meantime, my husband retired, we moved to Colorado and enjoy living in a pinyon/juniper forest with mountains all around us.

Biography...