As a professional artist, my artistic work includes mosaics, imaginative drawings in scratchboard and clayboard, drawings on paper, mixed-media collages, murals, and illustrations. I have widely exhibited theme-based bodies of work. Past exhibits include Sound the Climate Alarm (an exploration of the emotional states connected with an awareness of climate change and animal extinction,) Animals (my relationship with critters and the impact of human activity and climate change on them), Better Angels, Deer, and a Boat (an homage to this beautiful and troubled world through dreamlike scenes and personal symbols), Linked in Spirit (visual commentary on multi-layered experiences), Meetings and Other Mysteries (about ways that people come together), Weathering the Storm (based on stories of perseverance), The Experience of Farmers (about the joys and struggles of farmers) and Two Mothers Two Sons (about mother-son relationships with art). I produced The Experience of Farmers with support from two artist residencies: one at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center in Minnesota, and the other in Glasco, Kansas with a Kansas Arts Commission grant. I interviewed farmers for this project, and incorporated text from these interviews into my art. “Her emphatic interpretations of others’ stories are, in the end, both community building and stereotype defying,” wrote Rick Mitchell, former gallery director of the Lawrence Arts Center, about my work. (See Exhibits.) My commissioned mosaic installation With Nature Sing, was installed at the Bethel College Mennonite Church, North Newton, Kansas, in 2018, and my mosaic mural Nearly Spring, was installed at the Free State Brewery in downtown Lawrence, Kansas, in 2014.
My creative work also includes teaching, facilitating community art projects, illustrating, and writing. I co-authored with Dave Loewenstein the book Kansas Murals: A Traveler’s Guide (University Press of Kansas, 2006) with grant support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Kansas Arts Commission. Our book received a Kansas Notable Book award from the Kansas Center for the Book. I have taught art classes at the Lawrence Arts Center for many years, and have facilitated classes in many other settings, among them Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas (as an adjunct teacher), Family Promise (a program for homeless families), GaDuGi SafeCenter (a women’s crisis center), and the Community Kitchen (a soup kitchen). I have contributed editorial and other illustrations for a variety of businesses and publications, among them the Free State Brewery, Kansas Magazine, Lawrence Magazine, KU Giving, Kansas Alumni, Oread Engineer, Pitch Weekly, The Mennonite, Bloomington Confidential, a KU Endowment Association fund appeal, and the River City Reading Festival.
I have also received the following awards and honors: the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission’s Phoenix Award (for outstanding artistic achievement in the Visual Arts category, 2014); Selected artist, Banned Book Trading Card Contest at the Lawrence Public Library (2013, 2017), the Silver Award: CASE District VI Excellence in Fundraising Materials for my KU Endowment fund appeal illustration (in combination with Amanda Warren’s graphic design) (2004); Kansas Artists Postcard Competition Series XXII winner (1999); Artist in Action Grant award, Smoky Hill River Festival (1999); Mini-fellowship, Kansas Arts Commission (1998); First place in 2-D at Art in the Park in Lawrence (1997); Edith L. Gilbertson Scholarship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1991-92); Vilas Award Scholarship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1991-92); and four artist residencies in Glasco supported by grants from the Kansas Arts Commission (1998, 1991-2000, 2001, 2008).
I have a B.A. degree from Bethel College (N. Newton, KS, 1988) and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, WI, 1992). (See Resume)