My long art career started with creating watercolor renderings for interior designers and teaching high school art classes.  Since then, my travels with paints have been to plein air sites in both the United States and international vistas.

Gallery exhibits have been with Forest & Ocean Gallery on Ocean Ave at Laguna Beach, California,  at L. Shaw and at Tru Cafe in Kearney, Nebraska, and at my own Studio in Alma, NE and Laguna Beach.  I enjoyed participating in a variety of Art in the Park festivals around Kansas and Nebraska.

Professional memberships have included the Nebraska Art Teachers Association, Kearney Artist Guild, Great Plains Art Guild, Association of Nebraska Art Clubs, Harlan County Arts Council, Laguna Plein Air Painters Association and Plein Air Mission, SOCALPAPA (Southern California Plein Air Painters Association)

My studio and home is in Laguna Beach where I’m inspired by the constantly changing seascapes which are reflected in my work.  My paintings portray my studying the delicate balance between color, texture, and light.  At least twice a year I return to Nebraska with an inspiration to paint the prairie lake views where I raised my 2 children and the farm country where I lived as a child.  I am still drawn to that land with my affinity for sunrises in the late summer, the smell of soil and sight of all the grassland colors. 

I have also always loved the feeling of landing in a new place and exploring.  My eyes have searched seeing differences from where I’ve been as my hand sketches or jots into a sketchbook what I see.  I think that being led by art fascilitates being mindful and present in life.

Art Education: 

University of Nebraska--Lincoln, Bachelors in Art Education.                 University of Nebraska--Kearney, M.A. Art.                                      Taos Institute of Art, Taos, New Mexico 

Inspiring workshops include Hal Haloun (Nebraska landscape artist), V. Vaughan (Texas Plein Air artist--the Vanishing Farm), Brenda Boylan of Cal Polytechnic,  Debra Huse of Newport Beach, CA,  Anna Martin--British artist in Torrox, Spain and accompanying Bob Francis and the Laguna Plein Air Painters to ocean views and sites found between San Clemente and Newport Beach, CA

Long ago, with raised hand in an Art History class at UNK, I asked Prof. Jack Karraker, “When can I call myself an Artist?  At what point can I professionally say, ‘I am an Artist.’ ”  His answer was that I could call myself an artist when I found that — I could not NOT make art. 

Well, then, make of it what you will,  I am an Artist.