Before she left for the East Coast at the tender age of eighteen with her
hippie partner in the camperized F10 pickup, teepee poles strapped to the
roof on her search for the meaning of life, she had grown up mainly in
Nanaimo B.C. where her oldest son was born. She had wanted a home
birth but the boat she was living on just off of New Castle Island had sunk.
“More guts than brains” some would say. No regrets.
She always knew she’d be an artist. Even during the day-job years as
assistant manager of the Pender Island Recycling Depot, doing
construction and machining, she had painted. Known fact: she’s never had
a job that required clean clothes.
Her first chance to go to formal art school was in Durham at the University
of New Hampshire. That lasted about two days, oh my, pregnant again!
not to mention living in the country illegally.
Finally a decade and a half later, after building her own strawbale home on
South Pender she enrolled in school, which changed everything. After
many years of painting, the doors were now opened to experimental,
informed, expressive and more personal work. After art school, some
people who had enjoyed her classic ‘pretty’ pictures were disappointed
with this new development in her art.
As a mature painter, after graduating many years ago, she is still risking,
pushing the edges and striving for that fresh and alive work of art that
feeds her soul.