About
I had been ‘creating’ with colors and textures for almost two decades in the form of photographed floral collages, fused glass, fabrics for lavender pillows, and beaded jewelry, when I suddenly felt eager to get my hands into paint.
My art studio is my sanctuary—a space that encourages creative freedom where there are few rules, lots of supplies, and a passion to create with no boundaries.
Not every painting or project works out the way I intended, but I always enjoy the beautiful trials and errors of my experiences.
Acrylic pouring is an addictive style—it is more freeform and less structured than traditional artists’ works. While a pour can be manipulated somewhat through the use of certain colors and knowledge of their densities, pouring results can be both exciting and daunting. The paint directs you as much as you direct the paint. Colors can be layered but not ‘mixed’ in the traditional sense. My tools include mundanely varied and brilliant items like straws, toothpicks, brushes, forks, silicone and even hair dryers. The way an acrylic pour artist achieves their final result varies—occasionally, it’s a messy / comedic / unsalvageable disaster and the canvas gets scraped. But mostly, the direction an artist takes is planned immediately after the paint is poured, once we see where our paint lands on the canvas. That’s when our creativity sets in!
Caribou is a nickname given to me by my parents when I was very young—I was my mother’s “little deer." They are the only member of deer family where both males and females wear antlers. Caribou are tough and beautiful, and can survive in the harshest conditions. Their noses are specially designed to warm the air before it gets to their lungs. Their preferred food is lichen, and they use their large hooves to dig it up, even in winter.
Like the Caribou I feel an affinity for, I have also become resilient and resourceful in my own life. My work is inspired by the plants and animals in my garden, the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, the places I have traveled to, and the tones and images that appear to me and my imagination in the final, dried pours of paint.