MY ART LIFE

When I was 15, my parents shipped me off to Hinckley School of Crafts in Maine for a photography workshop with True Kelly. I spent a lot of time watching Dan Daley teach in the hotshop. The next year, I went to Haystack, Maine for glassblowing, then to UW-River Falls, Wi where I received a B.S. in glass and fibers. I spent the eighties and nineties making decorative window art for the burgeoning housing market in the Phoenix area. Changing tastes and the Great Recession of 2008 caused sales to plummet. I relied on teaching and managing the glass studio at the Mesa Arts Center where I worked from 1998 - 2019.

Free from the demands of teaching and commissions, I now focus on my art. I started doing bas-relief glass beads in 2019 that quickly led to the series Extinction: Casualties of the Anthropocene. I began flameworking human forms which evolved into portraiture. My subjects are varied but generally involve environmentalist and human rights activists.

There is a Russian proverb, “If you’re happy, you’re not paying attention.” I hope my art brings attention to some of the pressing issues of our time.