I hope for my work to reflect a beauty that can be found in combining the natural and the person-made world. I am aiming to express a delicate strength which resembles a balance I’ve observed on our planet. My inspiration comes from discovering amazing patterns and textures in nature, urban settings and industrial landscapes, and repeating those in my collages and make into jewelry. I am also inspired by the past. I enjoy reading
about— and absorbing images of— ancient jewelry, artifacts, and architecture. This has motivated me to learn old techniques in jewelry making.
For some of my work I make my own Shibuichi, which is a silver and copper alloy that was used in Japan for making decorative findings on swords.
This combination of metals allows me to do a process called reticulation. By heating the Shibuichi to a high temperature I can create interesting patterns
and textures on the metal. I also incorporate a process called Keum-boo into my work which is an ancient
Korean technique of fusing 24 karat gold onto silver. In the last few years I have been using encaustic
medium to give my collages the transparency and strength I have always tried to achieve. With collages on one side of my
studio and jewelry on the other I move back and forth while one inspires the other.
Some of my favorite moments in constructing my art come in a form of meditation while creating a mass of shapes to produce one shape.
I love the idea of many individual parts working together to express something bigger and more powerful.
After receiving a BFA in Jewelry and Metals from the University of North Texas, I spent many years working under different artists and learning a variety of skills as an artist. This led me to discover my love for teaching, especially to kids.
When I am not making art, I am teaching art in my studio. The kids who have grown up taking
classes with me inspire me to break rules by witnessing the amazing art they create with their untainted young minds.
I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest in Corvallis, Oregon, with my husband, two kids, two dogs, ten chickens, and fifty thousand bees.
"Perfection destroys art"
Sergei Eisenstein