About the Artist

After a career in high-tech, I now have the luxury of focusing on my creative side.  I like to explore different mediums and techniques, but I find making “dots” images, quilt collages, and jewelry the most rewarding.

Before retiring, I spent 3 months working in Canberra, the Australian capital.  Visiting museums and galleries, I was impressed by the works done by the Australian Aboriginals.  After returning to Nevada, I decided to experiment with the techniques used by these artists.  Hence, my “dots” artwork.  For my subject matter, I like to look to Nevada images for inspiration. 

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by jigsaw puzzles.  I guess I have a need to turn the chaos of all the small pieces into the cohesive whole of the finished puzzle.  So, too, I have a fascination with quilts, mosaics, and stained glass.  They share the characteristic of many individual pieces combined to create a work of art.  By doing quilt collages, I am able to concentrate on the design aspects of creating a quilt, focusing on the colors and the patterns, without the tedium of actually cutting, sewing and quilting.  I construct my quilt collages primarily from paper from many sources, such as advertising flyers, calendars, cards, catalogs, and magazines.  Sometimes I design “fabric” on my computer, which I then print on paper.  And occasionally, I will take a marker or colored pencil in hand to augment a piece.

As in the quilt collages, I use paper as the primary design component for some of my jewelry.  But, instead of looking at the images in printed material with an eye for combining many small pieces into a design, I look at the images to see what small bits can stand alone.  Sometimes, I create a small quilt collage that I glue to the back of glass to make earrings and pins/pendants.  Or, I use my computer to create designs that I print on fabric.  I also use fused glass to create jewelry and small three-dimensional objects.

I was born in Missouri, but my family moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when I was 6 so my father could take the position of Professor of Art at Coe College.  I graduated from George Washington High School (Cedar Rapids) in 1970 and the University of Iowa in 1974 with a BA in Mathematics and a minor in Computer Science.  I worked for Burroughs Corporation (now Unisys) from 1974 until 1982.  From 1982 until I retired in 2009, I worked for Tandem Computers (which was bought by Compaq Computers and then Hewlitt Packard).  I had a varied career (programmer, teacher, systems analyst, project manager) but always in a technical capacity.  While working, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel extensively domestically and internationally.  My husband and I still enjoy traveling and try to make one international trip annually.

I currently have work in the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art gift shop and am a member of the Artists Co-op of Reno Gallery, where I am Treasurer. I am also the Treasurer of the Latimer Art Club and participate in all of the shows the club sponsors.  I won 3^rd place in mixed media at the Latimer Art Club Miniature show in 2017 and 2^nd place in 2018 and 2019.