Artist's Statement

As the daughter of an artist, my love of creating art was nurtured from an early age. A dozen years ago I ended a long public teaching career to pursue art full time. Although I enjoy painting in oils and watercolor, my favorite medium has long been soft pastels. I have been lucky to study with many of the most outstanding pastelists in this country. My years of practice and level of mastery of the medium have contributed to the selection of my paintings for many juried exhibitions from New York to California. I am recognized as a signature member of both the Pastel Society of America and the Pastel Society of the Southwest and am a juried member of the Degas Pastel Society. My work has received special recognition in exhibitions of the International Association of Pastel Societies and from the Artist's Magazine Annual Competition, as well as receiving numerous other awards in many regional and national exhibitions. I am a past president of the Austin Pastel Society and enjoy teaching workshops on pastel technique.
Since 2007, I have been creating original large and small scale textile wall hangings.  After I create the original designs, these works are assembled using such techniques as hand dyeing and painting fabrics, fabric collage, quilting, and embroidery.  Completed works include both large scale church wall hangings and small scale art quilts, depicting landscapes and still lifes, which are marketed to art collectors.  Unlike conventional quilts, these art quilts are designed only to be hung on the wall. These works allow me to indulge my lifetime love of both commercially available fabrics, and those custom fabrics that I can create by dyeing, printing, manipulating, or painting the raw cloth to suit the needs of a particular piece.