My work as an artist has been influenced by my life experience as a nurse-midwife and nurse practitioner tending to women’s health in the indigenous communities in Alaska, Guatemala, and Costa Rica including migrant workers in a free clinic in California. I have also been delivering babies in New Mexico in our small rural hospital where I have lived since 1980. I retired in 2001, took my first oil painting class, and have never looked back. I am drawn to create paintings that express my observations of the world around me and tell the story of who I am and what I see and feel. I paint to record and communicate these perceptions and feelings about the places I’ve been and the world as I experience it.
Over the past few years, as more and more Central American refugees made the perilous journey to the United States border, I traveled with an organization called “Humane Borders” that delivers water to tanks in key areas of the desert to sustain the men, women and children fleeing impossible circumstances in their homelands. I began to paint the landscape of the border and have started including people and human-made objects in my paintings. I want to bring awareness to the complexity of the hardship of the landscape as it relates to families seeking safety and refuge. Creativity is an integral part of my life encouraging and nudging me to live more fully in the moment–opening my eyes to the sensual experience of being the most present and alive that I can be. It is the natural world where I feel most inspired. Through my paintings it is my desire to communicate my personal experience of the magic of the landscape as well as social issues that are close to my heart–the paradoxes of beauty and tragedy as we look inside at ourselves and the underbelly of the world around us.
Solo Exhibits
| 2019 | Perils of Our Southwestern Borders, Bear Creek Art Studio and Gallery, Pinos Altos, NM |
| 2014 | The Season of Winter, Copper Quail Gallery, Silver City, NM |
| 2012 | Landscapes of the Southwest, Silver City Library, Silver City, NM |
| 2010 | SW New Mexico: Land of Enchantment, Main Street Atelier, Pinos Altos, NM |
Group Shows
| 2021 | Fall Show, Art at the Center, Nederland, CO |
| 2019 | Friend’s Show, Ceres Gallery, New York, NY |
| 2017 | Juried Purchase Prize Show, Grant County Art Guild, Pinos Altos, NM |
| 2016 | The Landscapes of Home, Vicky’s Restaurant, Silver City, NM |
| 2014 | 6X6 Show, Bear Creek Art Studio and Gallery, Pinos Altos, NM |
| 2013 | Teachers Who Paint and Students Who Teach, JW Art Gallery, NM |
Awards
| New Mexico State-Wide Juried Show,Grant County Art Guild | |||
| 2017 | Monsoon Over LS Mesa, Second Place (Oil Painting Division) Judge: Krystyna Robbins, El Paso, TX | ||
| 2016 | Alone, Third Place (Oil Painting Division) Judge: Carole Andreen-Harris, Tucson, AZ | ||
| 2014 | Snowy Path on the Loop, People’s Choice plus Award of Excellence (Oil Painting Division) Judge: Millard Davidson, Tucson, AZ | ||
| 2013 | City Of Rocks, Best of Show and First Place (Oil Painting Division) Judge: Donna Levine from Scottsdale, AZ | ||
| 2010 | Sandy Road at the Box and LS Mesa, Second Place and Honorable Mention (Oil Painting Division) Judge: Ken Hosmer, North Platte, NE | ||
| 2009 | Last Light on the Mesa, Honorable Mention (Oil Painting Division) Judge: David Schwindt, Tucson, AZ |