My work is essentially about the dignity and pride of being female and feminine and the reality of manual labor and hard work and how we balance those things daily. My ultimate hope is that these sculptures cause the viewer to relate, self-reflect, or empathize and that, through that experience, we have a better appreciation for the role of art as something to make us pause and consider our own humanity and that of others. My subject matter comes mainly from the strong women around me whom I admire. My female students often inspire works that present women who are very feminine in their attire, but who wield power over materials or elements. My love for metal casting started in my Sculpture 1 class at UW-Oshkosh in 1997. After graduating with a Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture degree, I moved to Florence, Italy to study for a short time. When I returned, I enrolled in UW-Milwaukee's graduate program in Sculpture and continued casting metal. Since then, I've participated in two Italian residencies, have showed my worked locally, regionally, and nationally, and conducted iron pours all over Wisconsin. I currently teach at UW-Whitewater and recently in the world famous foundry at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My studio is in Chilton, WI where I have a small foundry and host iron pours attended by artists from all over the United States.