The landscape has always been mine for the taking. I feel grounded and alive in it, knowing my place there. I am an integral, but small, relational part of it.

I think that being a midwesterner has been a blessing. Experiencing all four seasons is a boon. Each one, don't you think, coincides with an era within one's life. Sure, there's the youth to old age continuum. But there are also the multiple losses of a lifetime, the mourning of them, and then eventually, the new growth and blooming of new ideas, relationships, and even facets of one's own psyche.

The land delights with color and texture. In my own work, I am deeply in love with color palettes, but also the physicality of materials that reveals life, and a work of art in its depth and complexity.

Over time, I've worked with glass casting, encaustic painting*, paper making, and pottery. These processes are gritty, and force an engagement with what is...... dirt, sand, grasses, rock.

Engaging with fire and water as natural, but channeled forces, mimics geology, evolution and the resultant beauty. Working with fire is alchemical and chancy, yielding a moment by moment adventure.

There is a certain amount of arranging that takes place. I suppose you could call it design, but it's this moment of glee that I work toward, when all the elements of what I'm doing come together into something new and evocative.

*Encaustic painting is painting with a molten mixture of beeswax, damar resin, and pigment on a wood matrix. Each successive layer of medium is burned into the last with heat. This process yields a surface that is pleasantly aromatic, lush, and sensuous.

My art business has been designated as a "Trusted Art Seller" with The Art Storefronts Organization, which means you can shop with confidence, and know that I stand behind the quality and value of my products.

Education

Extensive Post-Graduate Study in Printmaking, Glass, and Ceramics at Haystack, Deer Isle Maine, and Ox-Bow, Suagatuck, Michigan
Northern Illinois University, Master of Fine Arts Degree, DeKalb IL, 1990-1994 University of Illinois, Bachelors in Occupational Therapy, Chicago IL, 1976

Awards

Artist in Residence Award, Gullkistan, Laugarvatn, Iceland, 2014
Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Award, 2002
Cover Design for Allyn and Bacon Publishers, 2002
Lalla Anne Critz Scholarship, Ox-Bow, Saugatuck MI, 1998
Artist in Residence Award, Ox-Bow, Saugatuck MI, 1997
Recent Works Award of Excellence, College of Lake County, Grayslake IL, 1996

Collections

Kelly Williamson Co., Rockford, IL
Vallot Harp, New York, NY
Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago IL
College of Lake County, Grayslake IL
International Travel Services, Northbrook IL
Prudential Preferred Properties, Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL
Schiff, Hardin, and Waite, Sears Tower, Chicago IL
Strauss and Associates, Bannockburn IL
Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, Seattle WA

Solo Exhibitions

Gathering, WomanMade Gallery, Chicago, Il 2007
Melting Palette, Quincy Art Museum, Quincy IL, 2004
Wishing, One Person Show, Lake County Museum, Wauconda Il, 2002

Selected Exhibitions

Finding Latitude, Two Person Exhibit, The Art Center of Highland Park IL, 2015 The Bobolink Proposition, Two Person Exhibit, Riverwoods IL, 2015 Landscape, Gullkistan, Laugarvatn, Iceland, 2014
Tethered by Feathers, Two Person Invitational, Lewis University, Joliet IL, 2014 Recent Works, College of Lake County, Grayslake Il, 2013
Tangible, Suzanne Randolph Fine Arts, Rotating Exhibition, New York NY, 2005
Edge, G.R.N’Namdi Gallery, Detroit MI, 2004
Waxworks 3, Gwenda Jay Addington Gallery, Chicago IL, 2004
Two Person Invitational, Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield WI, 2003
Burning In: Four Encaustic Painters, College of Lake County, Grayslake IL, 2002
Departure: American Contemporary Landscape, Indiana University, Gary IN, 2001
Joanne Mattera and Friends, Art Mecca Gallery, Chicago IL, 2001
Beyond the Surface, Womanmade Gallery, Chicago IL, 2001