Do you remember how important it was as a kid that food groups on your dinner plate not touch each other? How the green beans juice melted the jello and together they threatened to contaminate the mashed potatoes? That’s where the art thing began for me–managing food migration. I also enjoyed mud, tar, gobs of glue, building forts and finding faces in the clouds.
     I wanted to be an Egyptologist, or a pirate – either way, the fun was in digging stuff up. Later I was going to be an oceanographer, but along the way I discovered art and design. As a graphic designer,
I have provided creative services for brand image development and marketing communications across the business spectrum.
     In grad school, I learned the importance of tapping into our shared, common, cultural experience, bringing diverse elements together in meaningful ways. In my art I may suggest a theme but I allow origins to remain clouded, paths to be nonlinear and incomplete. Mystery is more fun, and in the ambiguous and subjective, there is meaningful self-discovery. The viewer stitches together their own story, participating in the creative process via their own life experience. There is no right or wrong interpretation, only one’s personal response.
     I find inspiration in the veins of a leaf, the workings of a bank vault clock and literary works of Victor Hugo. I appreciate the elegance of Brancusi, the raw spiritual power of Rodin, the reductive form of Modigliani, and the decorative fun of Steampunk.
     My artistic expression is a way I can give glory to the one who made us all. As an artist, I become a kind of co-creator and share the purpose of art – to express, develop relationships, bridge culture, time and distance, and generate new relationships.
By responding to the gift of life with my head and heart, I find meaning and purpose and express my most authentic self. When I pause during my busy day and notice the blue sky or connect with another person, I also discover something about myself.