About

I studied with Barbara Bailey Porter, Susie Wilson, Joan Hellenthal, Mary Jo Koch, Pauline Agnew, Martin Campos, as well as Felicia Forte, Lindsay Kusich, Diana Corvelle and Jacob Hankenson at the Sadie Valerie studio San Francisco. The teachers who have influenced me the most are Michelle Giulvezan Tanner, Melinda Cootsona, and Jerry Mcglaughlin.

The artists who inspire me are Alice Neel, Rembrandt, Ann Gade, Melinda Cootsona, and Brian Rutenberg. I have shown my work at First Friday Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County Cultural Council Open Studios and the deYoung Open 2020 in San Francisco.

Presently most of my work involves a process in which a painting begins with adding cold wax medium in a 1:1 ratio with oil paint.  I apply this with a squeegee in a minimum of three layers to a wood panel.  In this malleable stage, the oil and cold wax medium is receptive to a wide range of textural techniques.  This mixture is wet, but has body and is imprinted by nearly everything that goes into it.  The surface can be built up with palette knives, brayers and squeegees or scraped away or incised with lines, as the many layers are added.   

Over time my paintings evolve.  This process may take a few months or many years.  Each step adding layers, complexity and depth, leaving traces visible by the transparency of the paint and wax removal, a visual history of the process.  I improvise to the unplanned nature of this medium.

Future Exhibitions

2023               Scotts Valley Library, Scotts Valley, CA., October-December, 2023.

Solo Exhibitions

2012               Azhar, Santa Cruz, CA., “First Friday Five Years of My Work”

Group Exhibitions

2020               deYoung Museum, San Francisco, CA., “Open Exhibit – On the Edge”. October 10, 2020 to January 3, 2021.

2013               Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA., “The Drawing Salon”

2013               Vino Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA., “First Friday Faces and Places”

2012               Michaelangelo Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA., “Day of the Dead”

2012               Santa Cruz Art League, Santa Cruz, CA., “Santa Cruz Watercolor Society – Best of the West (Honorable Mention)”

2009               Pajaro Valley Art Center, Watsonville, CA.

2009               Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA., “Saladarity: an Amalgamation of Sprouting Artists”

2009-2013     Santa Cruz Art League, Santa Cruz, CA.