I grew up in Chesterfield, Missouri. My grandfather was a sculpture artist and my father was an avid art collector. While other kids were spending the weekends playing tether ball and Four- Square, I was either on a road trip to New York City galleries, or at the Saint Louis Art Museum where my mother was a docent.
This is where I learned to appreciate tone, light, color, texture, and style. One of my most monumental times was when my sister and I spent the weekend with Thomas Hart Benton and his wife in their Kansas City home in 1968. He passed away a few years later and now his home is a historical museum.
I learned to appreciate more avant garde and surreal art in works by Salvador Dali, Alexander Calder, and color with August Renoir. My love for black and white photography and landscapes come from my favorite photographer, Ansel Adams. To this day, sepia and black and white photography are my favorites. In the last three years I picked up abstract acrylic painting that is sometimes a piece on its own and sometimes mixed with the inks or inks and photography. I am always experimenting.
Over the years I dappled in drawing but found my true calling in photography, alcohol ink, and abstract acrylics.. It all started with that Kodak Brownie camera, then a Polaroid instant picture camera, Pentax K1000 workhorse, and has led to my precious Canon D50 digital SLR. Most of my learning came in a darkroom at the University of Missouri Journalism School of Photojournalism. This is where I learned how important it is that a picture tell a story or convey an emotion, the same way that my poetry does.
My alcohol ink paintings are organic in nature and a brush is just for blending colors with rubbing alcohol. The paint flows naturally over a nonporous surface as I pick up the hardboard and angle and dip it in different directions. It is only after I see how the ink flows that I determine what to paint, where.
When I got married, my husband built a darkroom in our basement where I spent endless hours learning techniques of dodging and burning. Now my Dectol, D76, and fixer have turned into Adobe Photoshop.
My art resume from the past six years
2012-2019
Second Place- “Crazy Balls” Still Life competition Oct. 2012 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
First Place- “Brassman” Golden Moments competition Dec. 2012 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
Best of Show- “Golden Apples” Golden Moments competition Dec. 2012 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
Honorable Mention-“Sunflowers” Impressionism competition Feb. 2013 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
First Place-“The Card Game” Pointillism competition March 2013 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
Second Place-“View from the Bridge” Pointillism competition March 2013 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
Third Place-“Fall at the Farm” Pointillism competition March 2013 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
Second Place-“The Chess Game” Plain Folks competition April 2013 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
Third Place-“The Audition” Plain Folks competition April 2013 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
Second Place-“Wanted-Empathy” s juried ‘Touched by Violence’ competition May 2013 Framations Art Gallery
First Place-”Spiderman’s Web” Abstract competition June 2013 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
One Man Show “Shadows and Fog” 12 pieces shown of mine at Framations Gallery June-July 2013
Two pieces in juried exhibit “It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Humidity” show “Snow Shadows” and “Dining Car Memories” St. Louis Artist Guild June-July 2013 St. Louis Artist Guild
Third Place-”Roots of My Family” Roots and Traditions competition July/August 2013 St. Peters Cultural Art Center
Two Honorable Mentions in “Enormous and Itsy Bitty” show with “Hole in the Wall” and “Memories of the Met” at the St. Peters Cultural Center September-October 2013
Showing three pieces in “Spiderman’s Web of Life, “Saving Bubbles and “Seeing the Light” at the “Virtual Reality” juried show at the Foundry in St. Charles, Missouri October 3- November 24 2013 The Foundry
People’s Choice Award and Honorable Mention ‘juried show “The Hard Line” with “Colorado Pleasure” ( my first alcohol ink piece) November-December 2013 Framations Art Gallery
Won the Dean Eckert Memorial Prize for”Body Image” in the juried show called “Clearly Human” November-December 2013 St. Louis Artisit Guild
“So Many Choices” and “Slinky Power” in a juried show in St. Charles, Missouri December 2013-January 2014 The Foundry
“Snow Shadows”. “What Lies Within”, “Spiderman’s Lair” and “Fog and Light” in juried Best Photography January-February 2014 Framations Gallery
First Place Landscape show “Lone Tree” and third place with “Protecting the Ranch” St. Peters Cultural Art Center
“Memories of the Met” in juried show Dreams and Memories January-March 2014 St. Louis Artist Guild
“Never too Old” won the Juron’s Award in the juried “How We See Her” show March-April 2014 The Foundry
“Carpe Diem” and “Emotions Potiion” won honorable mentions March 2014-April 2014 Framations Gallery
“Emotions Potion” won People’s Choice Award April 2014 Framations Gallery
“Seeing the Light” Summer Sensation juried show St. Louis Artist Guild June-August 2014
“Camouflage” first place mixed media By the Sea show at St. Peters Cultural Center July- August 2014
“Into the Light” honorable mention mixed media By the Sea show at St. Peters Cultural Center July-August 2014
One Man Show at the Renaud Center O'fallon Missouri July 25- October 17, 2014
Seven photographs and organic art in the Stan Musial wing of Des Peres Hospital May-November 2014 juried into by The Foundry in St. Charles
One Man Show of eight large pieces of alcohol ink in the lobby of the Regions Bank Building, Clayton, MO Feb. 2015-March 2015
“The Storm” second place "Red Aspens honorable mention in the Color My World juried show Oak Leaf Artist Guild March 2015-May 2015
"The Storm" second place in the Color My World juried show Oak Leaf Artist Guild March 2015-May 2015
"Wild" first place in the floral juried show at St. Peters Cultural Art Center May-June 2015
"Carny's Dilemma" juried in Circus show at The Foundry in St. Charles June-July 2015
first and second place in Oak Leaf Artists Guild show Vibrance September-October 2015
"Gentle Giant" juried in Photography XI at Framations Gallery January-February 2016
"Poe's Landing" and "St. Albans Awakening" in juried show Nature Nurtured at the Foundry in St. Charles Januaury-February 2016
One Man Show at the Missouri Athletic Club, downtown St. Louis March 1-31 2016, 2017
One Man Show at Third Degree Glass, St. Louis, Missouri July 15- August 14 2016, 2017
2 pieces in the juried show at the Foundry, St. Charles. MO Sept-October 2016
3 pieces in the juried show "Alive" at Framations Gallery April-May 2017
"Carney's Dilemma" and "Swinger of Trees" in juried show 'Tell Me a Story at the Foundry Art Centre June 16-July 28, 2017 "Kenyan Song" Jurors Choice Award Colorless juried show The Foundry, St. Charles, MO August 2018 "Sense of Humor" won first, second and third place March-May 2019 "Parental Love" won first, third and honorable mention May-July 2019
Owner and Artist of Fine Art of Missouri Gallery, Chesterfield, Missouri Oct.2014-current and Fine Art of Missouri Gallery Des Peres, MO May 2016-
Member of Oak Leaf Artist Guild, St. Louis Artist Guild, The Foundry, Greater St. Louis Art Association,, Best of Missouri Hands Juried Member in both mediums of photography and alcohol ink and The Center for Fine Art Photography.
