biography & artist statement
I grew up in Saratoga, California, where I attended public school; I was heartily encouraged to pursue art by my family and my teachers. I went to Boston College for my undergraduate studies. After graduating with a BA in English, I joined the Peace Corps and moved to Jordan to teach English. Following that adventure, I sought an entirely different one in the kitchen. I attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York. That experience taught me how important preparation, discipline and timing are to creativity. I have also lived in London and Guatemala, two beautiful places that have inspired my painting. In 2003, I enrolled in the undergraduate program at the Academy of Art University and then moved seamlessly into the graduate program. I graduated with an MFA in 2012. In 2013, I started studying theology at Regent College and graduated in 2017. In 2020 I returned to the US; I currently live in California.
My belief in the Biblical narrative of a loving God is what ultimately gives me the impetus to study created things. Nicholas Wolterstorff says in Art in Action: "So the artist who sees life and reality as a Christian will not despise the creation in which he finds himself. He will not see it as something from which to be liberated. If he is a painter, he will have no horror of the object. He will be free to dwell in loving detail on the object, trying to capture it, to render it." I do see life through the lens of Christianity, and I marvel at how it is that lens which prompts me to dwell lovingly on objects or scenes, aspiring to capture and render them on canvas or paper.
I am able to pursue my art fully because I believe that my process of studying God's creation is glorifying to God. My vocation is to explore and celebrate the world through representation and through that create and bear witness to the living God. Creating art reflects my belief in a creative Father and my creativity represents Him. Being a Christian artist means I have been educated, trained and immersed in the Christian story and my paintings result from that frame of mind.
I'd like to claim Dorothy L. Sayers's understanding of an artist. She believes that an artist uses life around her to stimulate art; in so doing, she adds to and enriches life. She says: "Take any phenomena you like: Take a rose. How will you proceed to solve a rose? You can cultivate roses, smell them, gather and wear them, make them into perfume or potpourri, paint them or write poetry about them; these are all creative activities.... the perfumer, the gardener, the woman and the painter, being occupied with the rose itself and not with its solution, can all present the world with new manifestations of the rose, and by so doing communicate the rose to one another in power.” I wish my paintings to be new manifestations of life communicating in power to the viewer. In “The Oblation of Things," Robert Farrar Capon describes even more succinctly why I paint: "The painter paints because she loves the way things look and wants to offer her sight of them to others."
Shows and Exhibitions:
2023 San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild Spring 2023 Online Exhibition
2022 COAL Gallery Juried Show, Carlsbad (Honorable Mention)
2022 California Art Club Excellence in Traditional Fine Art Competition Coming Together, Online
2022 Front Porch Gallery Juried Exhibition, Carlsbad (Won People's Choice Award)
2019 The Dal Schindell Gallery, Vancouver
2019 Blenz Cafe, Wesbrook Village, Vancouver
2017 The Lookout Gallery, Regent College, Vancouver
2006-2013 Gallery Saratoga, Saratoga
2012 AAU Spring Show, San Francisco
2011 Intel, Santa Clara
2011 Google, Mountain View
2010, Sunnyvale Art Gallery, Sunnyvale
2009, 688 Sutter Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco
2008, AAU 180 New Montgomery, San Francisco
2007, Casa Galleria, San Juan Bautista
2006, 688 Sutter Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco
2006, AAU Spring Show, San Francisco