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I started painting at the age of nine when my mother bought me a painting kit from the Sears catalogue. My first model was my sister KiAnn. The painting kit was oil paint because my mother did not know the difference between acrylic paint and oil paint. I loved the oil and continued to paint and draw throughout my teen years. I came to motherhood young and became very interested in how children learn. My first college degree was in child development and then I worked with children for a year. During that year I realized that where I really shined was when I was doing art projects with children. I went to the University of Minnesota to get an art degree. the original idea was to get an art education degree, but on my first day in the fine art building I realized that fine art was the only thing that I wanted to do. And so I went on to get my fine art degree.
During the 1980s I taught art at St. Kevin's one day a week, fifth through eighth grade. The art program at St. Kevin's had a very low budget so the children and I did a lot of drawing and a printmaking unit where we printed woodcuts with just black ink on white paper. Many of the teaching techniques that I developed during that time became part of the Studio Seven program.
I believe it is motivating to have goals. I exhibit periodically for the same reason I have my students exhibit - to share my personal creative vision. I have sold many paintings in my life, but selling is not my objective. When selling becomes the main objective creativity suffers. The artist and the work is diminished by the restriction of the freedom to paint what the artist really cares about. Figuring out what you really care about is an evolution that changes throughout our lives. For me, art is about life and death. Anyone who has ever watched a child come into this world who has cut an umbilical cord or held a baby seconds after it's birth knows how that moment in that day changes you forever. Anyone who has ever watched someone they love with all of their heart draw their last breath knows that the tear in their heart will never go away. We go on because we know we are supposed to it is expected of us. But you know that the moment of that day changes you forever. When I paint I am always searching for universal language and archetypal images that portray moments in time that deal with transience, life, and death.
Artist Statement about Artist Statements
Artist statements are somewhat ridiculous because when you make visual art or poetry, which is what visual art is (visual poetry), you address issues that words cannot express. If lineal and literal descriptions of the ideas and emotions we attempt to express, sometimes more successfully than others, worked with words, we would be writers. Writing is good, but almost everything that really matters to me can't be said with words. That's why I paint. Sometimes and only sometimes I create a painting that actually reflects a part of what I feel in the deepest part of me. In a place where there are no words. The only way to share that is for someone else to look at the painting. I can't tell you, I can only show you. That's why artist's statements aren't very relevant. However, galleries make you write them and sometimes trying to write about visual ideas can help us understand a little about where we are on our creative path. So here are a few I wrote.
During the 1980s I taught art at St. Kevin's one day a week, fifth through eighth grade. The art program at St. Kevin's had a very low budget so the children and I did a lot of drawing and a printmaking unit where we printed woodcuts with just black ink on white paper. Many of the teaching techniques that I developed during that time became part of the Studio Seven program.
I believe it is motivating to have goals. I exhibit periodically for the same reason I have my students exhibit - to share my personal creative vision. I have sold many paintings in my life, but selling is not my objective. When selling becomes the main objective creativity suffers. The artist and the work is diminished by the restriction of the freedom to paint what the artist really cares about. Figuring out what you really care about is an evolution that changes throughout our lives. For me, art is about life and death. Anyone who has ever watched a child come into this world who has cut an umbilical cord or held a baby seconds after it's birth knows how that moment in that day changes you forever. Anyone who has ever watched someone they love with all of their heart draw their last breath knows that the tear in their heart will never go away. We go on because we know we are supposed to it is expected of us. But you know that the moment of that day changes you forever. When I paint I am always searching for universal language and archetypal images that portray moments in time that deal with transience, life, and death.
Artist Statement about Artist Statements
Artist statements are somewhat ridiculous because when you make visual art or poetry, which is what visual art is (visual poetry), you address issues that words cannot express. If lineal and literal descriptions of the ideas and emotions we attempt to express, sometimes more successfully than others, worked with words, we would be writers. Writing is good, but almost everything that really matters to me can't be said with words. That's why I paint. Sometimes and only sometimes I create a painting that actually reflects a part of what I feel in the deepest part of me. In a place where there are no words. The only way to share that is for someone else to look at the painting. I can't tell you, I can only show you. That's why artist's statements aren't very relevant. However, galleries make you write them and sometimes trying to write about visual ideas can help us understand a little about where we are on our creative path. So here are a few I wrote.
Artist Statement/Sacred Perspective
My work is an investigation into the theological and historical evolution of female icons. Primarily, I focus on ancient pagan symbols of feminine divinity. Although I sometimes use models, the majority of my subject matter comes from my imagination. The symbolism in my work stems from the ardent study of history and mythology combined with dreams and visions that flow from the collective unconscious. There is a mystery inside each of us, an inner symbolic world of myth that we as a species share.
The Tree of Life is an ancient symbol with numerous versions explored by many artists over the past millennium. My personal expression of this symbol expresses the passionate and cosmic dance of life.
On the Altar symbolizes the act of surrendering oneself through intuition and knowledge to the pursuit of spiritual and personal truth.
Sarama Goddess of the Dogs was called mistress of the dogs by ancient Indo-Iranians. When I finished working on this piece, I found references to a goddess with dogs spanning six thousand years and a dozen different cultures. The Romans called her Minerva and she was accompanied by a three-headed dog. The Norse referred to her as the goddess Hel who gave birth to lunar wolf-dogs. This piece is my personal vision on this powerful and ancient icon.
Adoration, Mother of the Waters, Idol Enshrined, Blessing of the Water, and the Goddess Head all symbolically express our important spiritual connection to the world around us. These paintings express our interconnectedness to nature as well as the need for reverence for the Earth.
The Divine Mother is the historical and symbolic evolution of the Virgin Mary. A spiritual feminine icon that emerged over thousands of years from what was known as the Great Goddess or the Mother of the Earth. The figures on the bottom symbolize her many multi-cultured mythological incarnations. The center figure is the great mother herself with the beginning of creation in the center circle.
The Garden of Forgiveness symbolically expresses the sacred act of forgiveness; forgiving others as well as forgiving ourselves.
The Child at the Shrine visually expresses the seeking of enlightenment juxtaposed to the beautiful indifference of innocence.
The Womb of the Earth is a visual expression of the inner sanctuary of the soul. The place inside of our beings where we keep ourselves protected from the ravages of the world. It is in this sacred place that personal growth is possible; it is also the place where hope resides.
Long before speech we all had dreams inside the womb. I believe that the language of visual composition is universal; the fact that myths cross cultures, continents, and span over thousands of years is a testament to our connected inner visions. My work expresses this connection.
My work is an investigation into the theological and historical evolution of female icons. Primarily, I focus on ancient pagan symbols of feminine divinity. Although I sometimes use models, the majority of my subject matter comes from my imagination. The symbolism in my work stems from the ardent study of history and mythology combined with dreams and visions that flow from the collective unconscious. There is a mystery inside each of us, an inner symbolic world of myth that we as a species share.
The Tree of Life is an ancient symbol with numerous versions explored by many artists over the past millennium. My personal expression of this symbol expresses the passionate and cosmic dance of life.
On the Altar symbolizes the act of surrendering oneself through intuition and knowledge to the pursuit of spiritual and personal truth.
Sarama Goddess of the Dogs was called mistress of the dogs by ancient Indo-Iranians. When I finished working on this piece, I found references to a goddess with dogs spanning six thousand years and a dozen different cultures. The Romans called her Minerva and she was accompanied by a three-headed dog. The Norse referred to her as the goddess Hel who gave birth to lunar wolf-dogs. This piece is my personal vision on this powerful and ancient icon.
Adoration, Mother of the Waters, Idol Enshrined, Blessing of the Water, and the Goddess Head all symbolically express our important spiritual connection to the world around us. These paintings express our interconnectedness to nature as well as the need for reverence for the Earth.
The Divine Mother is the historical and symbolic evolution of the Virgin Mary. A spiritual feminine icon that emerged over thousands of years from what was known as the Great Goddess or the Mother of the Earth. The figures on the bottom symbolize her many multi-cultured mythological incarnations. The center figure is the great mother herself with the beginning of creation in the center circle.
The Garden of Forgiveness symbolically expresses the sacred act of forgiveness; forgiving others as well as forgiving ourselves.
The Child at the Shrine visually expresses the seeking of enlightenment juxtaposed to the beautiful indifference of innocence.
The Womb of the Earth is a visual expression of the inner sanctuary of the soul. The place inside of our beings where we keep ourselves protected from the ravages of the world. It is in this sacred place that personal growth is possible; it is also the place where hope resides.
Long before speech we all had dreams inside the womb. I believe that the language of visual composition is universal; the fact that myths cross cultures, continents, and span over thousands of years is a testament to our connected inner visions. My work expresses this connection.
Artist Statement
The most important element of my visual endeavor is that the images I create reflect aspects of the divine female that connect us all.
I create paintings and prints on wood and canvas that express the evolution of the divine female. I believe that art has always been a vehicle for the exploration of the mystery of existence. My obsession has always been the evolution of the female divine - her many faces. She embodies at the most basic level the mystery of our shared existence. There is so much overlap historically in relation to the feminine Icon. As an example, Sarama was mistress of the death dogs to the ancient Indo-Iranians; the Romans called her Minerva and the Norse refer to her as Hel who gave birth to the lunar wolf-dogs. The evolution and overlap of numerous female Icons go back thousands of years and continues into today. Some of my work is directly linked to the evolution; other pieces are entirely new reflections of her image.
The iconic images I am working on are emerging directly from my imagination. In the past I would be inspired by the model. I would see it and then paint it. Only the environment that the model existed in came from my imagination. This combination of the real with the unreal would create a dream-like effect. However, recent paintings, like Mother of the Waters, Fertility Temple of the Spring Equinox, and Child at the Shrine, are different in that they are entirely emerging from my own personal inner world - the composition, the land, and the figures. The images of the sacred feminine are inside of me and the inspiration no longer stems from the model.
The Divine Female had the preeminence of what we now think of as God for at least 25,000 years. Many of her sacred images have been destroyed. Her history has been overshadowed by bigotry, convoluted and hidden by misogynistic persecution as the male-oriented view of spirituality achieved supremacy. Happily I am not the only person pursuing the power behind these lost Icons. They are seeping into the mainstream, emerging from our unconscious. You can feel it all around you. I want to create new images from my imagination that bring back into the world the expression of her mystery and her power.
I want to further her visual mythology by expressing symbolically the life force as well as the inevitable experience of death. Using the inner images I carry in my heart to express all of the forces inherent in Nature. I will paint images of the scared female that exists inside each of us and connects all of us.
The most important element of my visual endeavor is that the images I create reflect aspects of the divine female that connect us all.
I create paintings and prints on wood and canvas that express the evolution of the divine female. I believe that art has always been a vehicle for the exploration of the mystery of existence. My obsession has always been the evolution of the female divine - her many faces. She embodies at the most basic level the mystery of our shared existence. There is so much overlap historically in relation to the feminine Icon. As an example, Sarama was mistress of the death dogs to the ancient Indo-Iranians; the Romans called her Minerva and the Norse refer to her as Hel who gave birth to the lunar wolf-dogs. The evolution and overlap of numerous female Icons go back thousands of years and continues into today. Some of my work is directly linked to the evolution; other pieces are entirely new reflections of her image.
The iconic images I am working on are emerging directly from my imagination. In the past I would be inspired by the model. I would see it and then paint it. Only the environment that the model existed in came from my imagination. This combination of the real with the unreal would create a dream-like effect. However, recent paintings, like Mother of the Waters, Fertility Temple of the Spring Equinox, and Child at the Shrine, are different in that they are entirely emerging from my own personal inner world - the composition, the land, and the figures. The images of the sacred feminine are inside of me and the inspiration no longer stems from the model.
The Divine Female had the preeminence of what we now think of as God for at least 25,000 years. Many of her sacred images have been destroyed. Her history has been overshadowed by bigotry, convoluted and hidden by misogynistic persecution as the male-oriented view of spirituality achieved supremacy. Happily I am not the only person pursuing the power behind these lost Icons. They are seeping into the mainstream, emerging from our unconscious. You can feel it all around you. I want to create new images from my imagination that bring back into the world the expression of her mystery and her power.
I want to further her visual mythology by expressing symbolically the life force as well as the inevitable experience of death. Using the inner images I carry in my heart to express all of the forces inherent in Nature. I will paint images of the scared female that exists inside each of us and connects all of us.
