​Art is the visible evidence of transformation. 
It is a messy kind of alchemy, a magical transformation of an idea into a tangible image.
For more about the encaustic medium and the techniques involved: Encaustic Medium
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Summer Studio, open air with frogs and herons for company
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Winter studio, Sylvia the studio cat for company
A source for inspiration: Quotes etc
Just the facts...
  • Born on the edge of the Bering Sea. (lived in Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois, Washington, & now Pennsylvania)
  • Family: husband, 3 daughters, 3 grandkids, 1 cat, and a pond full of frogs, salamanders and bluegills
  • Home: rural, almost wild, and in places irreverently untamed, surrounded by the Allegheny National Forest, a perfect source of inspiration. 
  • Education: BA in Studio Art: Seattle Pacific College, Seattle, Washington; MA in combined Art History/Studio Art: Vermont College, Montpelier, Vermont 
  • Affiliations: IEA (International Encaustic Artists); EAI (Encaustic Art Institute)
  • Gallery representation: ECCOTA gallery, Ridgway PA; Painted Finch Gallery, Corry PA; ArtWorks on the Summit, Kane PA; Encaustic Art Institute, Santa Fe NM

In addition to my studio work: 
  • Director, artists' co-operative ArtWorks on the Summit
  • Artistic Director, Art in the Wilds
  • Community art projects
  • Regional art organizations
  • ​Former Adjunct Instructor, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford
  • Workshop presentations
​Encaustic is a medium ideal for the layered approach I take to painting.  Abstract ideas become metaphors in the layered landscapes of the Allegheny mountains where I live and beyond into the many varied regions of this wide wild country.

I have worked in a variety of media, with a focus on a few techniques that have played pivotal roles in the history of art including encaustic, used by ancient Egyptians and Minoans, egg tempera, primarily used in Byzantine and Gothic era painters in southern Europe; woodcut prints, perfected by Japanese artists in the U-kiyo e tradition (Hokusai and Hiroshige); and collage or mixed media which transformed the working process of many more modern artists (ie. Kurt Schwitters, Lee Krasner and Robert Rauschenberg).  My handling of these techniques tends to be a loose interpretation.

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​"Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is."  Mason Cooley

When we look at a particular work of northwest coast art and see the shape of it, we are only looking at its after-ife.  Its real life is the movement by which it got to be that shape.  Bill Reid, Haida carver

"It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing."
Mark Rothko, artist
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