BIO
The arts have been a lifeline for me for as long as I can remember. In elementary school, getting the chance to make art in class, or do creative writing, or play in the orchestra was the only exciting thing about school. By the time I was a young adult, working in my sketchbook had become the most important part of my days. After a day's work I would come home and paint. My first paintings were a series of rooms I saw in my mind while listening to music-I was making it up as I went along. When I didn't get into grad school for art I met with a local professor, Ralph Gilbert, to ask why. He showed interest in what I had done despite my lack of skills and encouraged me to take my work seriously. I went back to school to study the figure and oil painting, mostly from him. I fell madly in love with oil paints, one of the great loves of my life, and then received my MFA from Georgia State University in 2003.
Shortly after graduating I had my daughter and that of course changed everything in the most welcome and dramatic way. Becoming a mother is the ultimate rite of passage, with all the blood and guts and high stakes and glory of any hero's journey. I feel madly in love with my daughter too, so naturally I had to paint her. I felt so much more raw and vulnerable and alive and exhausted and caring for all people, and all of this informed my art. Most of my paintings for the next couple of decades were of her and our home in an attempt to fully experience and unpack the richness of all of this, painting in fits and starts while parenting and teaching.
For almost 25 years I taught painting and drawing at various universities, the last 10 at Georgia Southern University. Because art gave so much meaning to my life I really wanted to share all I knew with my students. I wanted them to find the pleasure and joy that I found and to feel connected to all the great art that came before them. I wanted them to see how infinite they were, and have the world open up to them. We built communities and learned how to talk to each other honestly with care.
In 2016 in response to the Pulse nightclub attacks I created the 49 portraits project--a group portrait memorial exhibition made up of artists from around the country. Each artist made a portrait of someone killed in the attacks to donate to their families. When all the portraits were complete there was an exhibit of them held in the Orlando City Hall. So many new relationships were formed as a result of this project, and people gave and received so much—it gave me a taste of what is possible when art and compassion are combined in community.
My recent work is of flowers and plants. It has been freeing to work with the variety of colors, shapes, and compositional possibilities they offer, and to move away from the human figure, while still being able to convey mood and story. Currently I have work at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History as part of the 2025 Art X Climate exhibition. I have participated in international exhibitions through the Art in Embassies program in both Vatican City and Manama, Bahrain, as well as group shows at museums and galleries such as the Huntsville Museum of Art, Emory University, University of West Georgia, University of South Carolina, Buford, and Faye Gold gallery.