Since childhood, nature and creativity have been a part of my life.  While I was growing up, my family vacationed in wild places in national parks and forests of California.  While my dad fished, I kept busy recording and interpreting my surroundings through photography and drawing. My dedication to nature intensified as I earned degrees in the biological sciences and human ecology.  I became a classroom teacher and later an interpretive naturalist.  My art has evolved from pen and ink into the fiber arts where I incorporate techniques of silk painting, sewing, beading and quilting into my pieces.  

 

Most of my work is representational and inspired by nature.  Although many of my pieces are pretty pictures, I encourage the viewer to take a closer look, and ask questions. Often, I portray creatures that survive in a fine balance of environmental conditions.  I encourage my viewers to adopt a conservation ethic of preserving natural ecosystems and their creatures. We humans are also a part of nature, and what we do to damage the environment, will eventually harm us. I believe in what Henry David Thoreau so eloquently stated, “in wildness is the preservation of the world.”