Biography

As a child, I was exposed to my first experience in the arts.  I enjoyed sewing; the parts and movement of the machine intrigued me.  How that needle went up and down and made a locked stitch was fascinating.  How did it do that?  I loved the scissors, the chalk for marking, the little ruler with the black sliding point, the pins, the iron, all of it.  I took a sewing class and made a tennis dress.  I didn’t sew exactly straight seams, nor did I cut them that way.  I think that was the beginning of my appreciation of symmetry and balance, organic line and style.  Besides sewing, I took a couple of private art classes from artists my mother, who was also an artist, knew and the usual grammar school art classes.  I didn’t feel like I could draw very well and was not much impressed with any of my art back then.  Sewing and fine arts wouldn’t re-enter my life for years to come.  However, performing arts filled the gap.

I started in the performing art world at the age of 7 in New Orleans at Lelia Haller’s Ballet School.  I was a “chocolate drop” in my first recital.  I loved the feel of the movement, jumping in the air, leaping across the floor; it was exhilarating.  I went on to study dance through college where I found my niche in jazz and musical comedy for theater.  Making people laugh by falling on the floor and not getting hurt was great fun.  I continued in musical comedy at Louisiana State University and Baton Rouge Little Theater in such shows as Pippin, Annie Get Your Gun, Kismet, Showboat, Guys and Dolls, and Company among others.  After college, I moved to Alaska and danced with Alaska Ballet Theater and Alaska Contemporary Dance Company.  I moved to New York and studied with Gus Giordano, Ceclilia Marta, and David Howard.   Opportunities to choreograph came my way and I choreographed shows including multiple dance recitals and musicals such as Anything Goes and Guys and Dolls. 

One day, while living in Alaska, I was checking out of a grocery store and saw a magazine cover with, “Quilt In A Day” on it.  I thought, “No problem, I can do that!”  I bought it and made my first quilt.  I was drawn to quilts from my childhood.  I remember lying on the first quilt I ever had in the backyard and looking up through the tree branches at the interesting shapes of negative space.  I didn’t know it then, but I was looking at art and bonding with the magical feel of a quilt. The next quilt I made was years later after marrying and being pregnant with our first son.  After that, quilting snowballed and I quilted all the time.  I started with very traditional patterns and moved, over 20 years, to creating my own impressionistic patterns…of trees.  Trees, imagine that!?
My family and I moved to California where I continued to dance, teach, and choreograph for a number of years while concurrently completing a Master’s Degree in Social Work and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, which I use for my day job.   In 2006, I herniated a disc in my lower back, had surgery.  I spent time transitioning from an athletic orientation to less activity.  In order to occupy myself, I began drawing, sketching, designing quilts, studying quilt books of color, shape, shadow, trees!  I found that although I could not be as physical as I was, I could enjoy the movement of my art.  A dear friend of mine introduced me to the Air Pen, which propelled me into silk painting and dying.  I particularly enjoy silk painting because the dyes, salt, sugar, and water react with each other creating a movement before my eyes.   

At this moment in my life, I find myself drawn to silk painting, clay, wood sculpture, and quilting.  I suspect I will continue to do all of them and maybe find some new media to try.  Perhaps I will silk paint in the summer, work with clay in the fall, compose wood sculptures in the spring, and quilt in the winter.   

Art dances through my life from exposure in the earliest days to immersion at the present time.  I am repeatedly inspired by the writings of Eckhart Tolle on “Being” and the concept that all beings are connected.  Some of my pieces express my sense of beginningless time and that interconnectedness of all beings.  It is my hope that anyone who views my work will tap into their own creative ability and essence.