ARTIST STATEMENT
For the last several years I’ve often been found foraging for discarded windows and shower doors to use in my art. The beauty of the old glass appeals to me, and my ability to reuse it - and keep it from landfill - speaks to my artistic narrative referencing our fragile shared environment. In my work I use enamels that mix ground glass with pigment. When a painted piece is heated in a kiln to as high as 1500 degrees, the paint bonds with the glass. The visual depth you see in my work is enhanced by my use of the enamels on the back of the glass rather than the front. I paint in reverse - so when viewing a finished piece you look through the glass to the layered image on the back. I may melt the glass on a bed of plaster to produce the texture of waves and clouds, or I may sandblast the surface to create the softness that invites you to touch. Instead of having a photographic look I want my work to be evocative of the sensuality of the ocean and the simultaneous innocence and fierceness it can demonstrate.
My life has been typically disparate, from an early childhood in a small farming community in northern Idaho, where we still maintain a family farm, to a career with the Congress in Washington DC. World travel and my pursuit of art continue the trend. But approaching retirement, armed with an MBA instead of a background in the arts, I set out to design my own fine arts education. Dozens of color, composition and glass technique classes followed from many of the greats in the field. Coupled with unabashed trial and error, I arrived at this point in my artistic voyage. My inspiration continues to be what I see through the windows of my floating studio on San Francisco Bay.
My work has been exhibited in shows from the west coast to the east as well as internationally. With the concept in mind that maintaining world peace is something like solving a puzzle made of glass, I created Peace Puzzle (pictured below) for the Peace and Freedom exhibition in Sweizel, Germany in 2018 - it was made part of the permanent collection of the Waldmuseum there.
I have taught glass working techniques in Maryland and various locations in the San Francisco Bay area. I currently teach private classes in my studio on a Sausalito houseboat.
RESUME
PERMANENT COLLECTION
Zweisel Waldmuseum, Zweisel, Germany
JURIED EXHIBITIONS
2021 A Moment of Reflection, O'Hanlon Gallery, San Rafael CA
Jurist Emebet Korn, Desta Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
2021 Here and Now, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato CA
2020 The Second Half - 50 and Over, Las Laguna Gallery
Jurist Lori McBride, Las Laguna Gallery
2020 Reflections, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Jurist Shelley Barry, SLATE Art
2019 Bridge to Abstraction, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Jurist Stephen Wagner, Arc Gallery
2019 SiO2, Manna Gallery, Oakland, CA
Jurist Janet Hiebert, The Crucible and Studio One
2019 Marin County Fair, San Rafael, CA - Honorable Mention
2018 Marin County Fair, San Rafael, CA
2018 Peace and Freedom International Glass Art Exhibition, Zweisel,
Germany - Piece retained in permanent Museum collection
2012 13th Annual Glass Auction, Liberty Museum, Philadelphia PA
2012 International Glass Art Exhibition, Ehemaliges
Mädchenschulhaus, Zweisel, Germany
2011 New Glass Sculpture, Gallery 555, Washington DC
2011 The First 10 Years, Longview Gallery, Washington DC
2010 Transcendence - The Magic of Glass, Sequim, WA
CURRATED EXHIBITIONS
2018 Discarded, Halocline Studio, San Anselmo, CA
2012 Allude, Weisser Studio, Kensington, MD
OTHER EXHIBITIONS
2020 Glass Gathering Online
2020 SPARK, Corte Madera, CA
2019 Marin Open Studios at Bon Air, Greenbrae, CA
2017 Sausalito Village Art Exhibit, Sausalito, CA
2016 Marin Open Studios, Sausalito, CA
2016 Sausalito Village Art Exhibit, Sausalito, CA
2014 Fireside Lounge Exhibit, The Crucible, Oakland, CA
2014 Open Studio, Floating Home Association Tour, Sausalito, CA
2013 Sausalito Village Art Exhibit, Council Chambers, Sausalito, CA
2012 Fireside Lounge Exhibit, The Crucible, Oakland, CA
2012 Artists of Issaquah, Sausalito, CA
2010 Gallery Open House, Washington Glass Studio, Mt. Rainier, MD
2010 Excavate - Unearthing the Artist, Weisser Studio, Kensington, MD
2009 Gallery Open House, Washington Glass Studio, Mt. Rainier, MD
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
The Crucible - Oakland, CA
Recycled Glass Dinnerware
Team Building
Recycled Weekend
San Francisco Waldorf High School
Recycled Glass Techniques
Public Glass - San Francisco, CA
Recycled Weekend
Dry Plaster Casting
Grand Theatre Center for the Arts - Tracy, CA
Dry Plaster Casting
Fusing with Tempered Glass
Washington Glass School - Mt. Rainier, MD
Dry Plaster Casting
Going Green
Glass Lovers Weekend
Social Living Bowl Fusing
Professional Memberships
