bio

Greenville, SC is home. That's where I grew up, got my first job, got married and had my son. My only time away was when I was at the Art Institute of Atlanta.

I can't remember a time when I didn't just love making art with paper. My first collage, aptly named "gum wrapper collage" was made when I was thirteen years old. Friends and family saved gum wrappers for me and of course I bought a lot of gum because I liked the color of the wrappers. Now, thirty years later, I'm still collecting papers from everywhere and yes, my friends still save papers for me.

My husband, Eric remodeled our attic and made it into a beautiful studio for me. I feel like I'm in the tree tops when I'm up there working. I've got a great view of the birds and squirrels. I'm pretty much hooked on public radio, listening to NPR podcasts on my computer while I work. My favorites are This American Life, Talk of the Nation and I recently discovered a new show called RadioLab - another good one. When I need a change, I listen to books on CD.

My husband Eric and my son Aaron are the greatest guys ever and I'm lucky to share this lifetime with them.

process

I've naturally come around to collage through my interest in papermaking and my affection for paper. I work with pages from discarded books mostly, but also magazines, photocopies of my original art, doodles and photography, as well as hand-made and machine-made art papers. The effects I get from painting, wadding, folding, ripping or cutting make paper versatile and limitless.

I like acrylic paints for staining or making monotypes giving the paper a good variety of colors and textures. I often apply thin glazes of color after the paper is down for added depth or shadow. I assemble the paper using acrylic medium and mount it on stretched canvas or heavy weight watercolor paper. I finish the work by applying a matte UV safe varnish.

Sometimes I'll choose paper on which the text and its meaning has significance to the art. This allows the words and images to become an integral part of the art. Other times I paint or stain paper in batches, and pull it out of my "library" when a particular color and texture is needed.