Growing up on the sparsely populated plains of western North Dakota gave me a strong sense of the relationship between the land and the life within it. Horizons, plowed fields, stream beds, stratified layers of rock and soil, and stretches of prairie grasses were constants in my vision and so influenced my art.  Using line, matrixes and circular shapes, I have sought the underlying structures that connect the physical and spiritual in the world around me.  
 

I received my degree in Art Education in 1976 at North Dakota State University in Fargo where I worked in the Fargo Public School system until 1980. My husband, Carl and I then moved to the Hill country of Austin, Texas. I joined Austin Contemporary Art Association and participated in their exhibits while working in pastel on paper. I found the soft pastels could provide rich, saturated blocks of color which I would combine into interlocking shapes and patterns.
 

Our move to New York City in the mid-eighties offered many opportunities to visit museums and galleries. My early influences were Fauvist and Expressionist painters, Klee, Kandinsky, Dove, and Klimt. I became aware and drawn to the strong pattern making of Aboriginal artists, and to contemporary artists like Yayoi Kusama and Barbara Takenaga.
 

Spending time in nature feeds my spirit. In my garden, observing the rhythms of the seasons, watching the myriad and complex life forms make their way in the world around me is nourishing. Taking it in, I synthesize and translate these observations into complexities that become the paintings I make. They are my reflections on nature and the processes of life.
 

Just as the world is in constant motion, my art and processes have changed through experience gained, and embracing the exploration of materials in practice. In recent years, a painting has become a conversation with the medium and the work until it is actualized. Using various mediums in favor of brushwork opens a dialog that is more spontaneous, an example is using isopropyl alcohol, which leads to new and interesting outcomes. I welcome the unexpected.