SELECTED EXHIBITS
South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, IN
Honeywell Center for the Arts, Wabash, IN
Warsaw Performing Arts Center, Warsaw, IN
Aure Center for the Arts, Ft. Wayne, IN
REMC National Women's Conference, Indianapolis
Warsaw Women's Expo, Warsaw, Indiana
Interphase Studio Blue, Grand Rapids, MI
Spectrum Butterworth Hospital, Grand Rapids, MI
IU Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis, IN
The Gallery, Warsaw, Indiana
Lakeland Arts Association, Pierceton, IN
Grace College, Winona Lake, IN
Manchester College, Manchester, IN
P-H-M High School Gallary
SELECTED Commissions / Connections
Haworth Furniture, Product Illustration
Artprize Grand Rapids, Brochure
Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN
Community Mural Commission
Nappanee Missionary Church, Nappanee, IN
Performance Art
Wagon Wheel Theatre, Warsaw, IN
Set painting, Artistic Cast Bio Boards
Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center
Winona Lake, Indiana, 17-foot Artwall
Dane A. Miller Science Center
Winona Lake, Indiana, 22-foot Artwall
Limitless Splashpark
Winona Lake, Indiana, 12-foot Artwall
American Pianist's Association
Mosaic-surfaced grande piano
Indianapolis, IN
Grace College SPOE Office, interior artwork
Winona Lake, IN
Kosciusko Parkview YMCA
15-foot Artwall
Joe's Kid's Achievement Place
Warsaw, Indiana, 16-foot Artwall
Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation
Board Room 6-foot panels
Warsaw Community Schools
4-year abolition ART grant-funded Program
P-H-M Visual Arts Academy, Mishawaka, IN
Warsaw Community High School, Warsaw, IN
Guest Artist, Resident Artist Instructor
Mentone Elementary School
15-foot Children's Art Memorial
SELECTED RECOGNITION
Youth Collaboration Award, Grand Rapids MI
juried by Western Michigan University
Honeywell Performing Arts Center
1st Place, juried exhibit, Clark Gallery '17
2-8-9 Grace Magazine, Fall 2018
Focus on the Family-Thriving Family Magazine
Today's Christian Women Magazine
... and I bake really good cookies
You may be surprised to know that the lines you see crossing over and through my artwork are not painted on top, they exist as the thin spaces of canvas hardboard in the background that is left untouched. For example, the white lines in the abstracted art above form organically between the myriad of painted, cut and adhered shapes placed in tight juxtaposition--never touching, ever close.
When you run your fingers over the mosaic surface, each raised shape can be felt settling into its own place in a community of autonomy we call composition. Yes, it is an analogy whispering a message of significance to each in the grande' scheme. Isn't that what we all hope for?
Each work of art begins with the hands of an artisan creating a new spin, and the eye of an artist seeking a new view. My eyes have always gone to
in-between spaces. When others see branches of a tree, my eye looks to the shape created beyond, behind and between. When others see an expanse of water, I see the horizon line breaking the trees from the water from the sky.
It's an abstracted way of viewing. Music without words still carries the strength of its own voice. I feel the same way about the abstraction of mosaic.
Trained in K-12 Art Education (15-years pre-full-time studio) with dual education and art degrees, interacting with community in my work is a forte'. As a 15-year witness of students exploring art, they were never so happy than when creating abstractness absent of the pressure to perfect an end product. I suppose this is called play. One day I tried "playing" with my paintbrush on a potter's wheel. Iv'e never been the same.
I also have frogs to thank--high school biology dissection. Ever since that day, an x-acto knife has been a favorite tool. I just liked the smooth edge of the knife. There you have it. Put the two together and I discovered something new. Paint color blends and put them together. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. Simple; yet thriving on complexity.
I started out creating for an audience of One (Colossians 3:17) in my make-shift studio in the corner of the go-between room of entry from our garage. With a family of six, my hands held brushes while coats hung on wall hooks at my elbows. Friends and family saw what I was up to and told me to get it out where others could see. Strangely, they often had tears in their eyes. I couldn't understand this. But, I trusted the people who loved me most. My studio space now is big enough to house a 20-foot artwork. Who knew?
An awareness exhibit for children in Ghana, Africa, in need of freedom consumed five years of exhibits and hundreds of amazing conversations. From there, my work branched into the water crisis in the Central African Republic, instruments, abstracts and large-scale artwork for commercial spaces.
Though I claim the title, "Indiana Artist," my roots are varied. In the early years, rural Michigan imprinted tree lines and rows of farmland into my minds-eye. Growing up with a view of the mountainscapes of Washington blazened the extremes of hills and valleys, coniferous seasons and gray ash shorelines. Minnesota and Wisconsin are crowned with rolling hills by day and waves of oceanic clouds by night. Creation is stunning and fuels the soul.
Now settled in the Indiana Plains, the horizon lines of my wooded country home, lakeside cabin studio and the gray-blue hazes of our Kosciusko County 100+ lakes breathe new life into landscape colors every morning. You can see these memories of varied horizon lines in my work if you look hard enough.
My husband, Tim, serves as a college Dean and Professor of Management. Together, we love lake-life, kayaking, boating, skiing, watching home-renovation shows, chasing two dogs, four kids and all the sporting events among them.
On any given day I am the first one up to watch the sunrise. I drink coffee in my brown chair, pet my dogs and hold my youngest on my lap. My first mosaic was born in my mind's- eye from watching the sun come up between branches. Every mosaic since then--whether on a guitar or a 30-foot wall--reminds me to keep embracing new views.
Every day begins anew. Every mosaic begins with a new spin.
Every instrument is granted a new identity.
Every piece fits perfectly.
Over coffee, I said to a friend, "I don't know which photo to use for my bio page."
She said, "Here, I'll take one!" SNAP. I'm using it because I value genuine smiles over posed...
WARSAW,INDIANA
