I am a native of Western North Carolina and enjoy the beautiful and creative environment of the Asheville area. In 2017, I decided to retire early from a career in marketing, with a two-fold goal. My husband and I wanted to take some time to travel the world, and I wanted to pursue a life-long love of art.
My love of art is no surprise. I grew up in a family of very artistic and creative people. I have always been inspired by my very talented uncle who was a local, well-respected commercial artist. I was also inspired by an aunt who became my mentor. She has since passed, but she was one of the most creative people I have ever known. I was a little fearful that an ability to paint might be something for which I had no aptitude. I have always doodled and drawn some but had never painted. I had no idea if I could paint, so I started my first painting with my aunt and two cousins providing the lessons. It wasn’t perfect but it just happened! In painting, I found a balm for my soul, a way to express myself, an outlet for my effusive creativity, and a bond of kinship with my family. I haven’t stopped painting since!
My paintings begin with inspiration, are created through intuition, and end with discovery. Working in layers of paint, resin, alcohol ink, organic materials and gold leaf, I create original paintings and mixed-media works that are as tactile as they are visual — built up slowly until the painting tells me it’s finished. My work is rooted in the landscape and creative spirit of Western North Carolina, and in a lifelong belief that art should make you feel something the moment you walk into a room.
My work is rooted in texture, color, and the physical act of building a surface. I create original mixed-media paintings using layers of paint, texture mediums and materials, organic textures, resin, alcohol ink, and gold leaf — each piece built up slowly, intuitively, and with a fearlessness toward color that reflects both the landscape of Western North Carolina and the joy I feel in the process itself. Gold leaf and gold materials are central to much of my work — not as decoration, but as structure, light, and intention. It marks a moment in each painting where something shifts or becomes part of the message. My process is deeply tactile and largely intuitive — I don’t plan so much as I respond, adding and building until the painting tells me it’s finished. I want people who live with my work to keep discovering things in it — a color they hadn’t noticed, a texture that catches the afternoon light differently than it did in the morning. Art gave me a language I didn’t know I had, and every painting is another word in that conversation.