As a result, I find working in paint, using drawing materials like pastel, charcoal or ink, cutting and glueing images, transferring visual information to a surface or developing etched plates and printing them all very inspiring media. I generally categorize my work into Painting, Collages and Prints. I thoroughly enjoy working in multiple media as each has its challenges and the creative result allows me to access different levels and senses of myself. All my work is grounded in and greatly influenced by the imagery of the natural world and our attempts to catalog, measure, control and find our place in this world. Within the images, you will find natural imagery such as landscape, animals, birds, flowers, etc. as well as maps, diagrams, written text, charts, music and other graphic pieces. Layering of all these elements is a huge focus; perhaps a statement about our multiple levels, variety of means of understanding, and the often odd juxtaposition of memory, dream, knowledge and mystery. I am very much a process-oriented artist; the work evolves as I work at it, seldom using a pre-planned idea, but allowing myself to engage and move with the unfolding of the image and surfaces. I moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2015, after having been born, raised and worked my adult life in the Central Valley of California. As a kid growing up in the country, I found my most enjoyable moments outside running through the grapevines or orchards, digging in the dirt or riding my bike on the warm soft asphalt in summer. I collected stuff and made my first “assemblages.” I still find in my walks and yard work some of the most rewarding moments of the day; air on my skin, the shapes of vegetation, sounds and activity of birds, smells, all alive. The vertical nature of the PNW compared to the flatness of the CA valley is my newest focus.I initially graduated from college with a BA in English Literature. My strongest interest became poetry, not as a writer but an appreciator of the openness of the poem form and language. Since I also had an interest in human development, I spent my early work years teaching developmentally challenged children and adults until I decided to go back to school and pursuit my long time interest in art. I returned to college to acquire an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the San Francisco Art Institute; I finally felt I had come home to myself. I was a maker, not a writer or analyzer of creativity.