Much of my work is about serendipity…

I always look for and pick up small objects discarded on the street, and I love to buy other people’s memories in antiques shops. All of these odd bits and pieces add to the serendipity when some of those items find their way into my mixed media pieces.

My favorite photo techniques are alternative ones – Polaroid and photocopy transfers in particular – which frequently “surprise” me with their results. Much of my mixed media work includes these images.

Encaustic has its own serendipity. The medium is molten, fluid, and sensual. I start with a blank panel and begin building layer upon layer. As I work, my hands seem to take over as my mind retreats into the background and each piece speaks its own mind.

My most recent mixed media work involves the “story” that I give to unrelated photographs and bits and pieces of ephemera. The elements that come to hand for each piece, and the words I type, or the fragments of writing I add, all tell me what that story is.

I leave it to the viewer to create their own story…

So, who am I?
I was born and raised in Portland, Maine, and found my way to Deer Isle about 14 years ago. I am a self-taught artist – although I never attended art school, I have taken numerous workshops over the years, including book arts, encaustic, mixed media, alternative photographic methods, and image transfer. I studied at the Omega Institute (book arts with Paulus Berenson), Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Mid-Coast Community Darkrooms, and Maine College of Arts.

I like to think that I began my artistic career at age nine, when my parents bought me my first sewing machine. That little machine enabled me to express my creativity by making doll clothes, pillows, and my first dress – designed and sewn by me, as soon as I put it on it ripped out because I didn’t allow enough space for my 10-year-old body to move!

Paulus Berensohn rekindled the creative fire I felt as a 9 or 10-year-old, and for the past 14 years I have been exploring all sorts of media. When I found altered Polaroids, I thought that was “IT.” Then I discovered I could incorporate those images into mixed media pieces that also used all those bits and pieces I picked up over the years…

And then, I was introduced to encaustic by Graceann Warn at a Haystack workshop and I truly fell in love. When I go into my studio – to work in this fragrant space with this amazing medium – I am lost to the world.

I have been fortunate to be a technical assistant at Haystack with Graceann in two workshops since my first encounter with her. I have taught workshops in encaustic, mixed media, and Polaroid transfer techniques.