I was born in Illinois, among cornfields.  The land was forever flat and the sky was everywhere.  There were four children in my family (3 girls / 1 boy) and my parents, we played together.

Aside from making clothes for a crawfish for a 4-H show, my earliest memory of creativity was with acrylic painting and rocks.  We would collect rocks on the shores of lake Michigan, then take them to our kitchen table.  We would all sit around and paint them.  Some we would have simple designs, others would actually look like something, for example; a rock might resemble a car, so the rock would be transformed into a car with headlights etc.... etc....  We sold them at the local art fair.

the next milestone was the discovery of figure drawing at "Oxbows" in Saugatuck, MI, when I was 14.  I love it.  It helped me discover that drawing wasn't just something you learned but something you felt.  Because figure drawing has time limitations (30 second or 5 minute poses), it forces you into the spontaneous or the moment when your hand just does it.  Leonardo da Vinci said "its not enough to draw a person, you have to draw the state of mind of that person".  This sums up how I feel about drawing people and my goals in drawing.

I worked in New York city for awhile.  There, ideas were the important thing.  It taught me how one problem has many solutions, and the process that ideas, daydreams, night dreams or mind wandering thoughts take.  As a result I am sensitive to when an idea pops into my head.

One day I got the idea that I wanted to stop drawing cartoons, and draw and paint, things and people that looked real; with shadows, expressions, relationships, environments and landscapes.  That challenge has been keeping me busy and inspired for 20 years.  I continue to have a love and curiosity for that endeavor.

My life enters into my books as if I were reading a mystery.  I never know how, who, when, or why things and people enter my drawings.  It is not calculated, however it is mysteriously woven.

Drawing has effected my observation of the world.  I see things I can draw and can remember.  Then I weave them into pictures.  I see things that technically I can't draw but would like to, thus I'm inspired to figure it out.  I go to other artists paintings and drawings for help.

My mother is an artist and has given me her honesty every day of her life.  She has played an important role in pointing out my weaknesses and strengths.  She is an abstract sculptor.  Artistically we are very different yet somehow we share an artistic dialogue, and inspire each other.  My children, sisters, nieces and nephews are all somehow involved in the arts (theater, music, writing or visual) so, our summers, together have inspired circuses, musicals, improvisations theater and basically dress up clothes all over the house and yard.  I believe that creativity is contagious.

I love to teach children how to draw people and I hope to inspire others to draw, as so many artists have inspired me.
 
 

Birthplace: Joliet Illinois 

Let's Go Home
There are many kinds of houses in the world, from little cottages to big mansions. But no matter the kind of house, it is the living inside that makes it wonderful...