​Which artist outside of your chosen medium has had the most impact on your art? What do they do and in what way do they influence you?

Well, I can’t possibly pick one! There are many artists, for as many different reasons. So …
​
… My high school art teacher who encouraged me to go to art school. Dan Welden, a master printmaker I met after grad school. Working alongside him on and off for several years gave me an opportunity to experience what a professional studio practice could look like. In terms of art itself, early on I was I blown away by figurative artists Lucien Freud and Jenny Saville for their observation and use of medium. Their paintings have such seductive surfaces. I’d also have to include Gerhard Richter and Anslem Keefer for the same reasons. In terms of printmaking Kathe Kollwitz is someone who can capture such raw human emotion without sentimentality, and the British artist Norman Ackroyd, creates such poetic and dramatic landscape etchings. Oh, and I have to include Richard Serra. Seeing his sculptures in person for the first time was incredibly powerful.

​How long have you been seriously pursuing art?

I have always had a camera since I was a kid, but I became serious about it when planning my first trip out of the country to Ireland. I wanted to make good pictures, so I took a series of film photography and darkroom printmaking classes at CCRI. I became so obsessed with the darkroom printing process that I became the lab monitor by default! Fast forward a few years to 2003 and a trip to New Zealand inspired me to pursue the latest digital photography technology and a Continuing Education certificate from RISD in 2017. For me, being a photographer artist is not just about using the camera as a tool to create a beautiful picture, it feels like I have developed a unique connection to the world through the camera that allows me to experience emotions that can hopefully be conveyed from my mind’s eye to the viewer's eye. ​

Which artist outside of your chosen medium has had the most impact on your art? What do they do and in what way do they influence you?

While not a particular artist, I’d say that learning about classical musicians and how to appreciate their art has had an impact on how I perceive, understand, and create art. While in college I took a music appreciation course that exposed me to classical music for the first time. And even to this day, it has stayed with me that there are stories in music…even with no lyrics, I can hear the stories. I learned that art is often more than what “meets the eye” or comes through the senses; it is what you perceive and make of it yourself (whether as a viewer, reader, or listener). So when I paint a land-/seascape, I am painting the scene as I experienced it in real life, and hope that viewers will get a glimpse into a moment in time I thought was beautiful. ​

​

​Where are you from, and what do you make?
​
I am originally from Houston, Texas. My husband, son, and I moved to Rhode Island in 1993. I paint in oils, acrylics, and watercolors. I mostly paint in oils.

​Which artist outside of your chosen medium has had the most impact on your art? What do they do and in what way do they influence you?

The artist outside of my chosen medium that has had the most impact on my art is sculptor Isamu Noguchi. He created bold, simple organic sculptures inspired by nature. He believed that nature was of fundamental importance to the human condition. I have always loved his work. I used to visit the Noguchi Sculpture Garden in Houston. It was a beautiful place of serenity and peace. I hope I can have that serenity and peace and connection with nature in my life and in my art.