Artist’s Statement:

In the days of my childhood, I dabbled in making chalk drawings on sidewalks, crayoned drawings for my 4th and 5th grade teacher’s social studies bulletin boards, posters and murals in high school, tempera-painted holiday scenes on the plate-glass windows of my home and village businesses. Most desirable for me at age 10, was rainy-day drawings of my own paper dolls with dresses in glamorous Hollywood styles.

Unfortunately, I did not become serious about a career in art because the consensus of opinion in my family was, “Artists are a dime a dozen, and you cannot make a living drawing.” It was only when I decided to pursue the more practical career of teaching (an okay from the 4 teachers in my family), that I stepped around this obstacle by majoring in art. Even then (the 60’s in San Jose), Art was not considered an academic major for elementary school teachers. I had to have an academic minor to qualify for a teaching credential.

Under my 35 years of teaching, I was a strong advocate of the arts and their value in the lives of my students. I saw that participation in the visual and performing arts (VAPA standards) was daily and pleasurable, hence the subsequent Cultural Council/Neil Hellman “Art Teacher of the Year Award, 2001” which I felt honored to receive.

Now retired, and taking as many art classes as possible, I can finally fully engage in creative endeavors myself, and actually complete them. As a result, I am finding on my daily walks, or in the car, an increasingly heightened awareness of the play of light and shadows, the shapes and colors in the scenes before me. Repetitions of line and patterns, and temperatures of the colors of dawn and dusk intrigue me. The resulting processes of painting en plein air or in the studio can often be frustrating and unsettling, but it is almost always relaxing (with music), stimulating, and exhilarating. There is a freedom and growth in being able to release a painting upon completion and begin anew. Giving, selling, sharing or donating a requested piece of my work is an added pleasure of that relinquishment adding to the excitement of being an artist.

Art Resume:

BA Art, SJSU. 1967: Standard Elementary Teaching Credential, 1968
Mt. School Teacher (1969-2003), Art Consultant (2003-2005)
Arts grant Writer, Mountain School: Packard Foundation Grants (5),
California State ArtsWork Grants (2), Schools Plus Grants (7)
Arts Steering Committee, (Santa Cruz Cultural Council), 1998-2004
TCAP and BayCap participant, 1990, 1992, 2001, 2002
Arts Curriculum Design Committee, County Office of Education, 2000
Advancing School Arts School Program Review (ASA Packard Comm.), 2002
Board of Directors Santa Cruz Art League, 2003-present
“Arts Educator of the Year” Award (Cultural Council/Neil Hellman), 2001
Open Studio participant, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
SPLAT Art Tour participant, June, 2004
Winners’ Circle, pastel landscapes, Santa Cruz Art League, June/July-2004
“Arts in the Mountain” workshops with pastelists Dawn Emerson, Bend, Oregon, 2005;
pastelist Richard McKinley, Taos, NM, 2006 & Bend, Ore., 2008, Kitty Wallis, 2009
Street Painting with Chalk, PVAC, with Genna Panzarella: Register Pajaronian
article/photo, August, 2005
“Pastel the Eloquent Medium” juried group exhibit, Pajaro Valley Arts Council
and Gallery, July-Sept., 2005; Register Pajaronian article, 8/2005
Five-Artist exhibit, Santa Cruz County Government Bldg., Feb.-Mar., 2006
Two paintings juried Statewide Landscape Exhibit, Santa Cruz Art League,
May-June, 2007, “First Place Pastel” award for “Shady Respite by the Bend”..
Santa Cruz County Fair, Fine Arts Exhibit, two honorable mentions for “Sand Dunes”,
and “Afternoon Near the Grove,” Sept., 2007
One-Artist exhibit, Simpkins Swim Center, Open Studio “Florals,” Nov.-Jan., 08
One artist exhibit, “Farm Animals”, Santa Cruz Public Library, Jan.-Feb., 2008
Five-Artist exhibit, Santa Cruz County Government Bldg., Feb.– Mar., 2008
Santa Cruz Art League 90th Birthday Art Faire, 34 artists, May, 2009
Santa Cruz County Fair, “Best in Division – Painting Professional”, “Schwann Lagoon”, Sept., 2009
“Neary Lagoon” juried Sculpture & Drawing Exhibit pastel painting, Santa Cruz Art League, Dec. 2009