An artist from my earliest childhood, I received formal art instruction in painting and drawing as a high school student attending a summer program at the Academy of Art College (now University) in San Francisco, CA. I continued with community college painting courses at the College of Marin until moving away for college. Torn between my love of fine art and my passion for human rights, I ultimately chose the latter as the focus of my career and after finishing my B.A. at the University of CA, San Diego, studied human rights law at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, DC. My legal career as a government attorney was cut short by a devastating car accident that left me with a TBI and unable to continue to meet the fast-paced, high-stress demands of my job.

This was a major turning point in my life, with my husband and I moving from the hustle and bustle of the DC area to the more peaceful and rural Harpers Ferry, WV, where deer definitely outnumbered the people. The calm quiet physical beauty was a soothing balm for my heavily dysregulated nervous system. In addition to the multitudes of rehab therapies, I spent the next several years reconnecting with painting. Where it had been a hobby and creative outlet prior to my accident, afterwards it became my lifeline. In a world that is not very friendly to individuals with disabilities (especially invisible ones), I often found myself feeling humiliated, frustrated, and in despair over how hard it was for me to feel like a functional human. I started escaping my anguish through painting idyllic worlds of soothing colors and scenes. One friend once said she wanted to “live in my paintings” and little did she know that that was exactly what I was doing. My injured brain struggled to find a place in the world, so I created a different one on canvases based in vibrant, inviting landscapes.

With the end of my career and my sense of self, I completed a part-time Seminary program in my search for meaning and purpose. I practiced and studied many of the world’s primary religions and spiritual thought systems and was ordained as an Interfaith/Interspiritual minister. Although I do not align with any particular religion or philosophy, my Seminary experience introduced me to the great Sufi mystics and their life-changing poems. This led me on a wonderful journey of discovery of poetry, from the Sufis to the Hindu and Christian mystics, to many secular poets who write about nature with the same adoration, awe, and reverence that the mystics express about the Divine. I started creating paintings from a place of feeling– how could I bring that reverence and awe I felt reading those inspired words, or gazing upon nature, into my own work? Hence the birth of “Painted Poetry”, my approach to creating art. It seeks to invoke wonder, awe, devotion, and spiritual awakening and intuitive knowing through the use of paint, and sometimes a poem will sneak its way into my works, too!

We have since relocated to my native California, specifically the untouched beauty of the North Coast where the redwoods and the coast live harmoniously. The flora and fauna of this rugged rural coastline of far-northern California are inspiration enough, but the vibrant sunsets and breathtaking sunrises together with the mystical fog, ever-shifting tides and forever changing weather patterns also provide ample inspiration daily. I am constantly awe-struck by the resilience that life exudes here from the heavily logged redwood forests to the fire scorched earth and the multitudes of plants and animals that thrive through our relentless rainy season. I hope to bring this spirit of incessant perseverance to my art in hopes that humanity can come to glean wisdom, respect, and appreciation for all that nature has to teach us.